The Exponent of the Homotopy Groups of Moore Spectra and the Stable Hurewicz Homomorphism

Abstract

AbstractThis paper shows that for the Moore spectrum MG associated with any abelian group G, and for any positive integer n, the order of the Postnikov k-invariant kn+1(MG) is equal to the exponent of the homotopy group πnMG. In the case of the sphere spectrum S, this implies that the exponents of the homotopy groups of S provide a universal estimate for the exponent of the kernel of the stable Hurewicz homomorphism hn: πnX → En(X) for the homology theory E*(—) corresponding to any connective ring spectrum E such that π0E is torsion-free and for any bounded below spectrum X. Moreover, an upper bound for the exponent of the cokernel of the generalized Hurewicz homomorphism hn: En(X) → Hn(X; π0E), induced by the 0-th Postnikov section of E, is obtained for any connective spectrum E. An application of these results enables us to approximate in a universal way both kernel and cokernel of the unstable Hurewicz homomorphism between the algebraic K-theory of any ring and the ordinary integral homology of its linear group.