Endotrivial modules for the quaternion group and iterated Jokers in chromatic homotopy theory

Abstract

The algebraic Joker module was originally described in the 1970s by Adams and Priddy and is a $5$-dimensional module over the subHopf algebra $\mathcal{A}(1)$ of the mod $2$ Steenrod algebra. It is a self-dual endotrivial module, i.e., an invertible object in the stable module category of $\mathcal{A}(1)$. Recently it has been shown that no analogues exist for $\mathcal{A}(n)$ with $n>1$. Using iterated doubling this also gives an iterated double which is an $\mathcal{A}(n)$-module but not stably invertible. In previous work the author showed that for $n=1,2,3$ these iterated doubles were realisable as cohomology of CW spectra, but no such realisation existed for $n>3$. The main point of the paper is to show that in the height $2$ chromatic context, the Morava $K$-theory of double Jokers realise an exceptional endotrivial module over the quaternion group of order $8$ that only exists over a field of characteristic $2$ containing a primitive cube root of unity. This has connections with certain Massey products in the cohomology of the quaternion group.