nLab Bousfield–Kan spectral sequence

Idea

The classical and motivating examples of a homotopy spectral sequence is the Bousfield-Kan spectral sequence which computes homotopy groups of a topological space/simplicial set/homotopy type realized as the totalization of a cosimplicial homotopy type. It may be regarded as the unstable analog of the Adams spectral sequence, which computes homotopy groups of certain spectra. The corresponding spectral sequence for homology groups of the totalization of a cosimplicial homotopy type is the Eilenberg-Moore spectral sequence.

References

The Bousfield-Kan spectral sequence was introduced and originally studied in

• Aldridge Bousfield, Daniel Kan, The homotopy spectral sequence of a space with coefficients in a ring. Topology, 11, pp. 79–106, 1972.

• Aldridge Bousfield, Daniel Kan, A second quadrant homotopy spectral sequence, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society Vol. 177, Mar., 1973 (pdf)

• Aldridge Bousfield, Daniel Kan, Pairings and products in the homotopy

  spectral sequence_. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 177, pp. 319–343, 1973.

• Aldridge Bousfield, Homotopy Spectral Sequences and Obstructions, Isr. J. Math. 66 (1989), 54-104.

An early textbook account of this work is in

• Aldridge Bousfield, Daniel Kan, Homotopy limits, completions and localization, Springer 1972

Lecture notes include

• Bertrand Guillou, The Bousfield-Kan spectral sequence pdf

Discussion of computations using effective homology includes

• Romero Ibanez, Effective homology and spectral sequences, 2007 (pdf)