During the last decades, the structure of mod-2 cohomology of the Steenrod ring $\mathscr {A}$ became a major subject in Algebraic topology. One of the most direct attempt in studying this cohomology by means of modular representations of the general linear groups was the surprising work [Math. Z. 202 (1989), 493–523] by William Singer, which introduced a homomorphism, the so-called algebraic transfer, mapping from the coinvariants of certain representation of the general linear group to mod-2 cohomology group of the ring $\mathscr A.$ He conjectured that this transfer is a monomorphism. In this work, we prove Singer's conjecture for homological degree $4.$

Building upon work of Epstein, May and Drury, we define and investigate the mod p Steenrod operations on the de Rham cohomology of smooth algebraic stacks over a field of characteristic $p>0$ . We then compute the action of the operations on the de Rham cohomology of classifying stacks for finite groups, connected reductive groups for which p is not a torsion prime and (special) orthogonal groups when $p=2$ .

Conjugation spaces are topological spaces equipped with an involution such that their fixed points have the same mod 2 cohomology (as a graded vector space, a ring and even an unstable algebra) but with all degrees divided by two, generalizing the classical examples of complex projective spaces under complex conjugation. Spaces which are constructed from unit balls in complex Euclidean spaces are called spherical and are very well understood. Our aim is twofold. We construct ‘exotic’ conjugation spaces and study the realization question: which spaces can be realized as real loci, i.e., fixed points of conjugation spaces. We identify obstructions and provide examples of spaces and manifolds which cannot be realized as such.

For a path connected space X, the homology algebra $H_*(QX; \mathbb{Z}/2)$ is a polynomial algebra over certain generators QIx. We reinterpret a technical observation, of Curtis and Wellington, on the action of the Steenrod algebra A on the Λ algebra in our terms. We then introduce a partial order on each grading of H*QX which allows us to separate terms in a useful way when computing the action of dual Steenrod operations $Sq^i_*$ on $H_*(QX; \mathbb{Z}/2)$. We use these to completely characterise the A-annihilated generators of this polynomial algebra. We then propose a construction for sequences I so that QIx is A-annihilated. As an application, we offer some results on the form of potential spherical classes in H*QX upon some stability condition under homology suspension. Our computations provide new numerical conditions in the context of hit problem.

The algebraic EHP sequences, algebraic analogues of the EHP sequences in homotopy theory, are important tools in algebraic topology. This note will outline two new proofs of the existence of the algebraic EHP sequences. The first proof is derived from the minimal injective resolution of the reduced singular cohomology of spheres, and the second one follows Bousfield's idea using the loop functor of unstable modules.

For a prime number $p$ , we show that differentials $d_{n}$ in the motivic cohomology spectral sequence with $p$ -local coefficients vanish unless $p-1$ divides $n-1$ . We obtain an explicit formula for the first non-trivial differential $d_{p}$ , expressing it in terms of motivic Steenrod $p$ -power operations and Bockstein maps. To this end, we compute the algebra of operations of weight $p-1$ with $p$ -local coefficients. Finally, we construct examples of varieties having non-trivial differentials $d_{p}$ in their motivic cohomology spectral sequences.

The aim of this note is to present a new, elementary proof of a result of Baas and Madsen on the mod p cohomology of certain quotients of the spectrum BP.

The classical Schubert cells on a flag manifold $G/P$ give a cell decomposition for $G/P$ whose Kronecker duals (known as Schubert classes) form an additive base for the integral cohomology $H^{\ast}(G/P)$. We present a formula that expresses Steenrod mod-$p$ operations on Schubert classes in $G/P$ in terms of Cartan numbers of $G$.

A number of integral Hopf algebras have been studied that have, as their underlying modules, the free ${\bf Z}$-module generated by finite words in a certain alphabet. For example, the tensor algebra, the rings of quasisymmetric functions and of noncommutative symmetric functions, the Solomon descent algebra, the Malvenuto-Reutenauer algebra and the homology and cohomology of $\Omega\Sigma{\bf C} P^{\infty}$ are all of this type. Some of these are known to be isomorphic or dual to each other, some are known only to be rationally isomorphic, some have been stated in the literature to be isomorphic when they are only rationally isomorphic.

This paper is, in part, an attempt to find order in this chaos of word Hopf algebras. We consider three multiplications on such modules, and their dual comultiplications, and clarify which of these operations can be combined to obtain Hopf structures. We discuss when the results are isomorphic, integrally or rationally, and study the resulting structures. We are not attempting a classification of Hopf algebras of words, merely an organization of some of the Hopf algebras of this type that have been studied in the literature.

The cohomology algebra mod $p$ of the complex projective Stiefel manifolds is determined for all primes $p$. When $p=2$ we also determine the action of the Steenrod algebra and apply this to the problem of existence of trivial subbundles of multiples of the canonical line bundle over a lens space with 2-torsion, obtaining optimal results in many cases.

Campbell and Selick have given a natural decomposition of the cohomology of an elementary abelian p-group over the Steenrod algebra. We study the corresponding stable wedge summands of the classifying space B(𝓩/p)n+ using representation theory and explicit idempotents in the group ring 𝓕p[GLn(𝓩/p)].