Write for the linear isometry specified at . Choose a cofinal sequence from the indexing family , and write the target part of the supplied subordinate flag for a family of linear isometries as . After a cofinal enlargement it has
Both flags exhaust their universe for spectra. Compactness of the parameter space ensures that a finite target stage can contain all images of each fixed source stage.
Let be the vector bundle on with fiber
Here is the orthogonal complement in the indicated ambient subspace. Its rank is . Let be its Thom space, the disk bundle modulo its sphere bundle, so that every fiber is compactified and all its points at infinity become the single basepoint. For the zero bundle this convention gives . Define a target indexed prespectrum on the flag by
The smash product here is of based spaces, not yet the derived smash product of spectra.
To specify all structure maps, for use the continuous fiberwise orthogonal isomorphism
Both sides identify with the complement of in . In particular this is the isometry obtained by orthogonally projecting onto and its complement; it is not an assertion that the displayed summands coincide separately. Pass to fiberwise one-point compactifications, identify the last summand with using , and apply the source structure map. This defines
More explicitly, decompose , where and , as with and . Send its pair with to the pair over . The notation for finite vectors extends to the compactifications, sending infinities and basepoints to the basepoint. Orthogonal decomposition and associativity of the source structure maps prove the prespectrum identities.
Extend the indexed prespectrum from the cofinal flag to the target indexing family and apply spectrification . The point-set definition is
On a map of topological spectra it is induced at stage by . Thus the prescribed isometry family, indexing family and flag have all been used. A common cofinal refinement identifies the resulting objects in the stable homotopy category; the point-set model retains the chosen flag. If is a constant standard inclusion, the complement bundles are trivial and this recovers the usual reindexed .
Given a compact parameter space and a family of linear isometries, a subordinate flag for a family of linear isometries consists of nested cofinal source and target subspaces with for every . After enlarging the target stages, compactness makes this possible for every finite source stage. It permits simultaneous finite-dimensional Thom space constructions.
For compact over the space of linear isometries , choose a subordinate flag for a family of linear isometries . The vector bundle has fiber . Form . Its structure maps use the orthogonal decomposition
and the structure map of . The twisted half-smash product is the spectrification , after extending from the cofinal flag. Unlike an arbitrary replacement by , this definition retains the specified isometry family at the point-set level.