Revisiting the $β_1$-action on the $3$-primary stable homotopy groups of spheres

Abstract

Let $β_1$ be the first $3$-torsion class in the stable homotopy groups of spheres in even degree. Toda showed that $β_1^5 \neq 0$, whilst $β_1^6 = 0$. Shimomura generalised this to the $144$-periodic family generated by $β_1$, written as $\{β_{1+9s}\}_{s\geq 0}$, and showed that any $5$-fold product $\prod_5 β_{1+9s} \neq 0$, whilst all $6$-fold products $\prod_6 β_{1+9s} = 0$. In this article, we give a simple proof of these results as well as some generalisations to other $144$-periodic families. Our tools include BP-synthetic spectra, and the well-known Adams--Novikov spectral sequence for the spectrum of topological modular forms at the prime $3$ as well as its Adams operations.