Subject: Question on "adding formal indeterminate" (A message to be posted to the Algebraic Topology Discussion List ) From: Takuji Kashiwabara Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 23:37:01 +0100 Hello, I wonder if there is any explicit written reference of the following (easy, and presumably well-known) fact : Consider the Ravenel-Wilson's main relations in $R=E_*(\underline{F}_*)$. It takes the form of the equalities between the coefficient of some formal power series in $R[[s,t]]$. The usual proof involves computing the image of $\beta _i\otimes \beta _j$ 's in $E_*(CP{\infty } x CP{\infty })$ in two ways and summing them up. However, if we consider $$R[[x_1^E,x_2^E]]\cong Hom ((E_*(CP{\infty } x CP{\infty }),R)$$ the proof becomes almost trivial. (Then the relation is nothing but the equality between the two elements in R[[s,t]] corresponding to the two induced maps.) In other words, the "formal indeterminates" s, t are nothing but the orientation classes (or their induced maps). So, does anyone know of any written reference of this? Or something similar? For example in the context of FGL's ( I am aware that this kind of idea is used implicitly all over in FGL theory, but anything that looks like this explicitly? ) or that of total Steenrod/Dyer-Lashof operations? Thank you in advance. Takuji Kashiwabara