On P^1-stabilization in unstable motivic homotopy theory

Abstract: We analyze stabilization with respect to ${\mathbb P}^1$ in the Morel--Voevodsky unstable motivic homotopy theory. We introduce a refined notion of cellularity (a.k.a., biconnectivity) in various motivic homotopy categories taking into account both the simplicial and Tate circles. Under suitable cellularity hypotheses, we refine the Whitehead theorem by showing that a map of nilpotent motivic spaces can be seen to be an equivalence if it so after taking (Voevodsky) motives. We then establish a version of the Freudenthal suspension theorem for ${\mathbb P}^1$-suspension, again under suitable cellularity hypotheses. As applications, we resolve Murthy's conjecture on splitting of corank $1$ vector bundles on smooth affine algebras over algebraically closed fields having characteristic $0$ and compute new unstable motivic homotopy of motivic spheres.