This is the companion article to the Bourbaki talk of the same name given in March 2009. The main theme of the talk and the article is to explain the interplay between homotopy theory and algebraic geometry through the Hopkins-Miller-Lurie theorem on topological modular forms, from which we learn that the Deligne-Mumford moduli stack for elliptic curves is canonically realized as an object in derived algebraic geometry.
We describe and compute the homotopy of spectra of topological modular forms of level 3. We give some computations related to the building complex associated to level 3 structures at the prime 2. Finally, we note the existence of a number of connective models of the spectrum TMF(Gamma_0(3)).
The cohomology theory known as Tmf, for topological modular forms, is a universal object mapping out to elliptic cohomology theories, and its coefficient ring is closely connected to the classical ring of modular forms. We extend this to a functorial family of objects corresponding to elliptic curves with level structure and modular forms on them. Along the way, we produce a natural way to restrict to the cusps, providing multiplicative maps from Tmf with level structure to forms of K-theory. In particular, this allows us to construct a connective spectrum tmf_0(3) consistent with properties suggested by Mahowald and Rezk. This is accomplished using the machinery of logarithmic structures. We construct a sheaf of locally even-periodic elliptic cohomology theories, equipped with highly structured multiplication, on the log-etale site of the moduli of elliptic curves. Evaluating this sheaf on modular curves produces Tmf with level structure.
We construct a topological model for cellular, 2-complete, stable C-motivic homotopy theory that uses no algebro-geometric foundations. We compute the Steenrod algebra in this context, and we construct a motivic modular forms spectrum over C.
We analyze the ring tmf_*tmf of cooperations for the connective spectrum of topological modular forms (at the prime 2) through a variety of perspectives: (1) the E_2-term of the Adams spectral sequence for tmf ^ tmf admits a decomposition in terms of Ext groups for bo-Brown-Gitler modules, (2) the image of tmf_*tmf in the rationalization of TMF_*TMF admits a description in terms of 2-variable modular forms, and (3) modulo v_2-torsion, tmf_*tmf injects into a certain product of copies of TMF_0(N)_*, for various values of N. We explain how these different perspectives are related, and leverage these relationships to give complete information on tmf_*tmf in low degrees. We reprove a result of Davis-Mahowald-Rezk, that a piece of tmf ^ tmf gives a connective cover of TMF_0(3), and show that another piece gives a connective cover of TMF_0(5). To help motivate our methods, we also review the existing work on bo_*bo, the ring of cooperations for (2-primary) connective K-theory, and in the process give some new perspectives on this classical subject matter.
We build a connection between topology of smooth 4-manifolds and the theory of topological modular forms by considering topologically twisted compactification of 6d (1,0) theories on 4-manifolds with flavor symmetry backgrounds. The effective 2d theory has (0,1) supersymmetry and, possibly, a residual flavor symmetry. The equivariant topological Witten genus of this 2d theory then produces a new invariant of the 4-manifold equipped with a principle bundle, valued in the ring of equivariant weakly holomorphic (topological) modular forms. We describe basic properties of this map and present a few simple examples. As a byproduct, we obtain some new results on t Hooft anomalies of 6d (1,0) theories and a better understanding of the relation between 2d (0,1) theories and TMF spectra.