Nilpotence theorem
In algebraic topology, the nilpotence theorem gives a condition for an element in the homotopy groups of a ring spectrum to be nilpotent, in terms of the complex cobordism spectrum M U {\displaystyle \mathrm {MU} } . More precisely, it states that for any ring spectrum R {\textstyle R} , the kernel of the map π ∗ R → M U ∗ ( R ) {\textstyle \pi _{\ast }R\to \mathrm {MU} _{\ast }(R)} consists of nilpotent elements.