Global orthogonal spectra

Abstract

For any finite group G, there are several well-established definitions of a G-equivariant spectrum. In this paper, we develop the definition of a global orthogonal spectrum. Loosely speaking, this is a coherent choice of orthogonal G-spectrum for each finite group G. We use the framework of enriched indexed categories to make this precise. We also consider equivariant K-theory and Spin^c-cobordism from this perspective, and we show that the Atiyah--Bott--Shapiro orientation extends to the global context.