The plethory of operations in complex topological K-theory

Abstract

We provide a concrete introduction to the topologised, graded analogue of an algebraic structure known as a plethory, originally due to Tall and Wraith. Stacey and Whitehouse showed this structure is present on the cohomology operations for a suitable generalised cohomology theory. We compute an explicit expression for the plethory of operations for complex topological K-theory. This is formulated in terms of a plethory enhanced with structure corresponding to the looping of operations. In this context we show that the familiar lambda operations generate all the operations.