Stable Homotopy Seminar, 1: Introduction and Motivation

We describe some features that the category of spectra is expected to have, and some ideas from topology it's expected to generalize. Along the way, we review the Freudenthal suspension theorem, and the definition of a generalized cohomology theory. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~======================~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is part of an informal seminar about stable homotopy theory led by Paul VanKoughnett. For notes and more info, see https://www.math.purdue.edu/~pvankoug/spectra/index.html