The spectrum for commutative complex $K$-theory

Abstract: We study commutative complex $K$-theory, a generalised cohomology theory built from spaces of ordered commuting tuples in the unitary groups. We show that the spectrum for commutative complex $K$-theory is stably equivalent to the $ku$-group ring of $BU(1)$ and thus obtain a splitting of its representing space $B_{com}U$ as a product of all the terms in the Whitehead tower for $BU$, $B_{com}U\simeq BU\times BU\langle 4\rangle \times BU\langle 6\rangle \times \dots .$ As a consequence of the spectrum level identification we obtain the ring of coefficients for this theory. Using the rational Hopf ring for $B_{com}U$ we describe the relationship of our results with a previous computation of the rational cohomology algebra of $B_{com}U$. This gives an essentially complete description of the space $B_{com}U$ introduced by A. Adem and J. G\'omez.