Tambara Functors and Commutative Ring Spectra

Abstract

It is well known that the zeroth stable homotopy group of a genuine equivariant commutative ring spectrum has multiplicative transfers (norms), making it into a Tambara functor. We prove here that all Tambara functors can be obtained in this way. In fact, we prove that the homotopy category of Eilenberg MacLane commutative ring spectra is equivalent to the category of Tambara functors. Several algebraic results on Tambara functors are derived as corollaries. Finally, we rule out the existence of a lax symmetric monoidal construction for Eilenberg MacLane spectra when the group is nontrivial.