On the infinite loop spaces of algebraic cobordism and the motivic sphere

Abstract

We obtain geometric models for the infinite loop spaces of the motivic spectra $\mathrm{MGL}$, $\mathrm{MSL}$, and $\mathbf{1}$ over a field. They are motivically equivalent to $\mathbb{Z}\times \mathrm{Hilb}_\infty^\mathrm{lci}(\mathbb{A}^\infty)^+$, $\mathbb{Z}\times \mathrm{Hilb}_\infty^\mathrm{or}(\mathbb{A}^\infty)^+$, and $\mathbb{Z}\times \mathrm{Hilb}_\infty^\mathrm{fr}(\mathbb{A}^\infty)^+$, respectively, where $\mathrm{Hilb}_d^\mathrm{lci}(\mathbb{A}^n)$ (resp. $\mathrm{Hilb}_d^\mathrm{or}(\mathbb{A}^n)$, $\mathrm{Hilb}_d^\mathrm{fr}(\mathbb{A}^n)$) is the Hilbert scheme of lci points (resp. oriented points, framed points) of degree $d$ in $\mathbb{A}^n$, and $+$ is Quillen's plus construction. Moreover, we show that the plus construction is redundant in positive characteristic. Comment: 13 pages. v5: published version; v4: final version, to appear in \'Epijournal G\'eom. Alg\'ebrique; v3: minor corrections; v2: added details in the moving lemma over finite fields