English

Incomplete Tambara functors

Algebraic Topology 2018-03-16 v1 Category Theory

Abstract

For a "genuine" equivariant commutative ring spectrum RR, π0(R)\pi_0(R) admits a rich algebraic structure known as a Tambara functor. This algebraic structure mirrors the structure on RR arising from the existence of multiplicative norm maps. Motivated by the surprising fact that Bousfield localization can destroy some of the norm maps, in previous work we studied equivariant commutative ring structures parametrized by NN_\infty operads. In a precise sense, these interpolate between "naive" and "genuine" equivariant ring structures. In this paper, we describe the algebraic analogue of NN_\infty ring structures. We introduce and study categories of incomplete Tambara functors, described in terms of certain categories of bispans. Incomplete Tambara functors arise as π0\pi_0 of NN_\infty algebras, and interpolate between Green functors and Tambara functors. We classify all incomplete Tambara functors in terms of a basic structural result about polynomial functors. This classification gives a conceptual justification for our prior description of NN_\infty operads and also allows us to easily describe the properties of the category of incomplete Tambara functors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.03292,
  title  = {Incomplete Tambara functors},
  author = {Andrew J. Blumberg and Michael A. Hill},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.03292},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T13:08:08.243Z