Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Let H be a graded commutative algebra with a nice set of algebra generators. Let H also be a comodule over a Hopf algebra A. In Section 2 we give conditions under which certain of these generators of H can be rechosen to be primitive. In addition we give explicit formulas expressing these primitive generators in terms of the original set of generators.
In Section 3 we apply the theory of Section 2 to the mod p homology of the Thorn spectra MO, MU and MSp. In particular we give two explicit descriptions of the image of the Hurewicz homomorphism for MO. One of these makes explicit the recursive computation of E. Brown and F. Peterson [1].
In Section 4 we give a variation of the theory of Section 2 which computes primitive generators of certain Hopf algebras. This theory is applied to study the primitive elements of H*(BU) and H*(SO; Z2).