English

Multiplicative Equivariant Thom Spectra & Structured Real Orientations

Algebraic Topology 2026-04-14 v2 Category Theory

Abstract

For strongly even EC2\mathbb{E}_{\infty}^{C_2}-rings EE we show that any homotopy ring map MUEe\mathrm{MU} \to E^e lifts to an Eρ\mathbb{E}_{\rho}-map MURE\mathrm{MU}_{\mathbb{R}} \to E. This refines the Hahn-Shi Real orientations of Lubin-Tate theories EnE_n, the Hirzebruch level-nn orientations of tmf1(n)\mathrm{tmf}_1(n), and Quillen's idempotent to Eρ\mathbb{E}_\rho-maps. It allows us to provide the first structured version of BPR\mathrm{BP}_{\mathbb{R}} - we show that it admits an Eρ\mathbb{E}_{\rho}-algebra structure. Furthermore, we extend these results to larger groups. In particular, for a finite group C2GC_2 \leq G the Hahn-Shi orientation NC2GMUREnN_{C_2}^G \mathrm{MU}_{\mathbb{R}} \to E_n refines to a CoindC2GEρ\operatorname{Coind}_{C_2}^G \mathbb{E}_{\rho}-map, and NC2GBPRN^G_{C_2}\mathrm{BP}_{\mathbb{R}} admits a CoindC2GEρ\operatorname{Coind}_{C_2}^G \mathbb{E}_{\rho}-algebra structure. Essential to this program is a robust theory of multiplicative equivariant Thom spectra, which we develop using parametrized higher algebra and fibrous patterns - particularly, we provide an equivariant version of Antol\'in-Camarena--Barthel's universal property for multiplicative Thom spectra and use this to deduce a multiplicative equivariant Thom isomorphism. We provide a number of categorical results of independent interest, most notably a distributive monoidal structure on parametrized left module categories.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.15573,
  title  = {Multiplicative Equivariant Thom Spectra & Structured Real Orientations},
  author = {Ryan Quinn and Qi Zhu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.15573},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

92 pages, various improvements, comments still very welcome!

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:29:28.904Z