In mathematics, in the field of algebraic topology, the Eilenberg–Moore spectral sequence addresses the calculation of the homology groups of a pullback over a fibration. The spectral sequence formulates the calculation from knowledge of the homology of the remaining spaces. Samuel Eilenberg and John C. Moore's original paper addresses this for singular homology.

Let ${\displaystyle k}$ be a field and let ${\displaystyle H_{\ast }(-)=H_{\ast }(-,k)}$ and ${\displaystyle H^{\ast }(-)=H^{\ast }(-,k)}$ denote singular homology and singular cohomology with coefficients in k, respectively.

Consider the following pullback ${\displaystyle E_{f}}$ of a continuous map p:

${\displaystyle {\begin{array}{c c c}E_{f}&\rightarrow &E\\\downarrow &&\downarrow {p}\\X&\rightarrow _{f}&B\\\end{array}}}$

A frequent question is how the homology of the fiber product, ${\displaystyle E_{f}}$, relates to the homology of B, X and E. For example, if B is a point, then the pullback is just the usual product ${\displaystyle E\times X}$. In this case the Künneth formula says

${\displaystyle H^{*}(E_{f})=H^{*}(X\times E)\cong H^{*}(X)\otimes _{k}H^{*}(E).}$

However this relation is not true in more general situations. The Eilenberg−Moore spectral sequence is a device which allows the computation of the (co)homology of the fiber product in certain situations.

The Eilenberg−Moore spectral sequences generalizes the above isomorphism to the situation where p is a fibration of topological spaces and the base B is simply connected. Then there is a convergent spectral sequence with

${\displaystyle E_{2}^{\ast ,\ast }={\text{Tor}}_{H^{\ast }(B)}^{\ast ,\ast }(H^{\ast }(X),H^{\ast }(E))\Rightarrow H^{\ast }(E_{f}).}$

This is a generalization insofar as the zeroeth Tor functor is just the tensor product and in the above special case the cohomology of the point B is just the coefficient field k (in degree 0).

Dually, we have the following homology spectral sequence:

${\displaystyle E_{\ast ,\ast }^{2}={\text{Cotor}}_{\ast ,\ast }^{H_{\ast }(B)}(H_{\ast }(X),H_{\ast }(E))\Rightarrow H_{\ast }(E_{f}).}$

The spectral sequence arises from the study of differential graded objects (chain complexes), not spaces. The following discusses the original homological construction of Eilenberg and Moore. The cohomology case is obtained in a similar manner.

Let

${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(-)=S_{\ast }(-,k)}$

be the singular chain functor with coefficients in ${\displaystyle k}$. By the Eilenberg–Zilber theorem, ${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(B)}$ has a differential graded coalgebra structure over ${\displaystyle k}$ with structure maps

${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(B){\xrightarrow {\triangle }}S_{\ast }(B\times B){\xrightarrow {\simeq }}S_{\ast }(B)\otimes S_{\ast }(B).}$

In down-to-earth terms, the map assigns to a singular chain s: Δⁿ → B the composition of s and the diagonal inclusion B ⊂ B × B. Similarly, the maps ${\displaystyle f}$ and ${\displaystyle p}$ induce maps of differential graded coalgebras

${\displaystyle f_{\ast }\colon S_{\ast }(X)\rightarrow S_{\ast }(B)}$, ${\displaystyle p_{\ast }\colon S_{\ast }(E)\rightarrow S_{\ast }(B)}$.

In the language of comodules, they endow ${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(E)}$ and ${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(X)}$ with differential graded comodule structures over ${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(B)}$, with structure maps

${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(X){\xrightarrow {\triangle }}S_{\ast }(X)\otimes S_{\ast }(X){\xrightarrow {f_{\ast }\otimes 1}}S_{\ast }(B)\otimes S_{\ast }(X)}$

and similarly for E instead of X. It is now possible to construct the so-called cobar resolution for

${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(X)}$

as a differential graded ${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(B)}$ comodule. The cobar resolution is a standard technique in differential homological algebra:

${\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}(S_{\ast }(X),S_{\ast }(B))=\cdots {\xleftarrow {\delta _{2}}}{\mathcal {C}}_{-2}(S_{\ast }(X),S_{\ast }(B)){\xleftarrow {\delta _{1}}}{\mathcal {C}}_{-1}(S_{\ast }(X),S_{\ast }(B)){\xleftarrow {\delta _{0}}}S_{\ast }(X)\otimes S_{\ast }(B),}$

where the n-th term ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}_{-n}}$ is given by

${\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}_{-n}(S_{\ast }(X),S_{\ast }(B))=S_{\ast }(X)\otimes \underbrace {S_{\ast }(B)\otimes \cdots \otimes S_{\ast }(B)} _{n}\otimes S_{\ast }(B).}$

The maps ${\displaystyle \delta _{n}}$ are given by

${\displaystyle \lambda _{f}\otimes \cdots \otimes 1+\sum _{i=2}^{n}1\otimes \cdots \otimes \triangle _{i}\otimes \cdots \otimes 1,}$

where ${\displaystyle \lambda _{f}}$ is the structure map for ${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(X)}$ as a left ${\displaystyle S_{\ast }(B)}$ comodule.

The cobar resolution is a bicomplex, one degree coming from the grading of the chain complexes S_∗(−), the other one is the simplicial degree n. The total complex of the bicomplex is denoted ${\displaystyle \mathbf {\mathcal {C}} _{\bullet }}$.

The link of the above algebraic construction with the topological situation is as follows. Under the above assumptions, there is a map

${\displaystyle \Theta \colon \mathbf {\mathcal {C}} _{\bullet {{\text{ }}\Box _{S_{\ast }(B)}}}S_{\ast }(E)\rightarrow S_{\ast }(E_{f},k)}$

that induces a quasi-isomorphism (i.e. inducing an isomorphism on homology groups)

${\displaystyle \Theta _{\ast }\colon \operatorname {Cotor} ^{S_{\ast }(B)}(S_{\ast }(X)S_{\ast }(E))\rightarrow H_{\ast }(E_{f}),}$

where ${\displaystyle \Box _{S_{\ast }(B)}}$ is the cotensor product and Cotor (cotorsion) is the derived functor for the cotensor product.

To calculate

${\displaystyle H_{\ast }(\mathbf {\mathcal {C}} _{\bullet {{\text{ }}\Box _{S_{\ast }(B)}}}S_{\ast }(E))}$,

view

${\displaystyle \mathbf {\mathcal {C}} _{\bullet {{\text{ }}\Box _{S_{\ast }(B)}}}S_{\ast }(E)}$

as a double complex.

For any bicomplex there are two filtrations (see John McCleary (2001) or the spectral sequence of a filtered complex); in this case the Eilenberg−Moore spectral sequence results from filtering by increasing homological degree (by columns in the standard picture of a spectral sequence). This filtration yields

${\displaystyle E^{2}=\operatorname {Cotor} ^{H_{\ast }(B)}(H_{\ast }(X),H_{\ast }(E)).}$

These results have been refined in various ways. For example, William G. Dwyer (1975) refined the convergence results to include spaces for which

${\displaystyle \pi _{1}(B)}$

acts nilpotently on

${\displaystyle H_{i}(E_{f})}$

for all ${\displaystyle i\geq 0}$ and Brooke Shipley (1996) further generalized this to include arbitrary pullbacks.

The original construction does not lend itself to computations with other homology theories since there is no reason to expect that such a process would work for a homology theory not derived from chain complexes. However, it is possible to axiomatize the above procedure and give conditions under which the above spectral sequence holds for a general (co)homology theory, see Larry Smith's original work (Smith 1970) or the introduction in (Hatcher 2002).

• Dwyer, William G. (1975), "Exotic convergence of the Eilenberg–Moore spectral sequence", Illinois Journal of Mathematics, 19 (4): 607–617, doi:10.1215/ijm/1256050669, ISSN 0019-2082, MR 0383409
• Eilenberg, Samuel; Moore, John C. (1962), "Limits and spectral sequences", Topology, 1 (1): 1–23, doi:10.1016/0040-9383(62)90093-9
• Hatcher, Allen (2002), Algebraic topology, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-79540-1
• McCleary, John (2001), "Chapters 7 and 8: The Eilenberg−Moore spectral sequence I and II", A user's guide to spectral sequences, Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics, vol. 58, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-56759-6
• Shipley, Brooke E. (1996), "Convergence of the homology spectral sequence of a cosimplicial space", American Journal of Mathematics, 118 (1): 179–207, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.549.661, doi:10.1353/ajm.1996.0004, S2CID 14725161
• Smith, Larry (1970), Lectures on the Eilenberg−Moore spectral sequence, Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 134, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, MR 0275435

• Allen Hatcher, Spectral Sequences in Algebraic Topology, Ch 3. Eilenberg–MacLane Spaces [1]