Topology Seminar
Tuesday November 28, 2-3 PM, Nelson room

Speaker: Konstantin Emming, WSU

Title:  Mahowald's eta_j family

Abstract: 
The computation of the stable homotopy groups of spheres is a task at the very heart of algebraic topology. One of the main tools for these computations was and still is the Adams spectral sequence. In this talk, we will look at a very specific computation carried out by Mark Mahowald in 1977. Namely, we will look at his proof of the existence of the so-called eta_j family, which is a collection of maps represented in the Adams spectral sequence by the elements h_1 h_j. We will sketch the general outline of Mahowald's arguments and then look at some particular computations that may not be so clearly worked out in the original publication. This is the content of the speaker's master's thesis written under the guidance of Mingcong Zeng and Stefan Schwede.