ii iii Abstract. Let S be the sphere spectrum. We construct an associative, commutative, and unital smash product in a complete and cocomplete category M S of "S-modules" whose derived category D S is equivalent to the classical stable homotopy category. This allows a simple and algebraically manageable definition of "S-algebras" and "commutative S-algebras" in terms of associative, or associative and commutative, products R ∧ S R −→ R. These notions are essentially equivalent to the earlier notions of A ∞ and E ∞ ring spectra, and the older notions feed naturally into the new framework to provide plentiful examples. There is an equally simple definition of R-modules in terms of maps R ∧ S M −→ M .When R is commutative, the category M R of R-modules also has an associative, commutative, and unital smash product, and its derived category D R has properties just like the stable homotopy category.Working in the derived category D R , we construct spectral sequences that specialize to give generalized universal coefficient and Künneth spectral sequences. Classical torsion products and Ext groups are obtained by specializing our constructions to Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectra and passing to homotopy groups, and the derived category of a discrete ring R is equivalent to the derived category of its associated Eilenberg-Mac Lane S-algebra.We also develop a homotopical theory of R-ring spectra in D R , analogous to the classical theory of ring spectra in the stable homotopy category, and we use it to give new constructions as MU-ring spectra of a host of fundamentally important spectra whose earlier constructions were both more difficult and less precise.Working in the module category M R , we show that the category of finite cell modules over an S-algebra R gives rise to an associated algebraic K-theory spectrum KR. Specialized to the Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectra of discrete rings, this recovers Quillen's algebraic K-theory of rings. Specialized to suspension spectra Σ ∞ (ΩX) + of loop spaces, it recovers Waldhausen's algebraic K-theory of spaces.Replacing our ground ring S by a commutative S-algebra R, we define Ralgebras and commutative R-algebras in terms of maps A ∧ R A −→ A, and we show that the categories of R-modules, R-algebras, and commutative R-algebras are all topological model categories. We use the model structures to study Bousfield localizations of R-modules and R-algebras. In particular, we prove that KO and KU are commutative ko and ku-algebras and therefore commutative S-algebras.We define the topological Hochschild homology R-module T HH R (A; M ) of A with coefficients in an (A, A)-bimodule M and give spectral sequences for the calculation of its homotopy and homology groups. Again, classical Hochschild homology and cohomology groups are obtained by specializing the constructions to Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectra and passing to homotopy groups. iv

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The topological part of the M-theory partition function was shown by Witten to be encoded in the index of an E 8 bundle in eleven dimensions. This partition function is, however, not automatically anomalyfree. We observe here that the vanishing W 7 = 0 of the DiaconescuMoore-Witten anomaly [1] in IIA and compactified M-theory partition function is equivalent to orientability of spacetime with respect to (complex-oriented) elliptic cohomology. Motivated by this, we define an elliptic cohomology correction to the IIA partition function, and propose its relationship to interaction between 2-and 5-branes in the M-theory limit.e-print archive: http://lanl.arXiv.org/abs/hep-th/0404013

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Abstract. We discuss certain calculations in the 2-complete motivic stable homotopy category over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0. Specifically, we prove the convergence of motivic analogues of the Adams and AdamsNovikov spectral sequences, and as one application, discuss the 2-complete version of the complex motivic J-homomorphism.

In the presence of background Neveu-Schwarz flux, the description of the Ramond-Ramond fields of type IIB string theory using twisted K-theory is not compatible with S-duality. We argue that other possible variants of twisted K-theory would still not resolve this issue. We propose instead a connection of S-duality with elliptic cohomology, and a possible T-duality relation of this to a previous proposal for IIA theory, and higher-dimensional limits. In the process, we obtain some other results which may be interesting on their own. In particular, we prove a conjecture of Witten that the 11-dimensional spin cobordism group vanishes on K(Z, 6), which eliminates a potential new θ-angle in type IIB string theory.