Global $\infty$-categories and global Thom spectra

Abstract

We introduce a framework of (Lie-)global $\infty$-categories, which formalizes various families of $\infty$-categories indexed by compact Lie groups and equipped with suitable restriction functors along continuous group homomorphisms that occur naturally in equivariant homotopy theory and representation theory. As our main results, we show that in this framework unstable and stable equivariant and global homotopy theory admit universal properties, refining and generalizing the results for finite groups from arXiv:2301.08240 and arXiv:2307.11001. In particular, we characterize the passage from unstable to stable equivariant and global homotopy theory at the level of global $\infty$-categories as universally inverting the action of representation spheres in an appropriate sense. Building on this, we define parametrized equivariant and global Thom spectrum functors and show that they recover classical Thom spectrum constructions defined in terms of pointset models.