$BP$: Close encounters of the $E_\infty$ kind

Abstract

Inspired by Stewart Priddy's cellular model for the $p$-local Brown-Peterson spectrum $BP$, we give a construction of a $p$-local $E_\infty$ ring spectrum $R$ which is a close approximation to $BP$. Indeed we can show that if $BP$ admits an $E_\infty$ structure then these are weakly equivalent as $E_\infty$ ring spectra. Our inductive cellular construction makes use of power operations on homotopy groups to define homotopy classes which are then killed by attaching $E_\infty$ cells.