In mathematics, Brown–Peterson cohomology is a generalized cohomology theory introduced by Edgar H. Brown and Franklin P. Peterson (1966), depending on a choice of prime p. It is described in detail by Douglas Ravenel (2003, Chapter 4). Its representing spectrum is denoted by BP.

Brown–Peterson cohomology BP is a summand of MU_(p), which is complex cobordism MU localized at a prime p. In fact MU_(p) is a wedge product of suspensions of BP.

For each prime p, Daniel Quillen showed there is a unique idempotent map of ring spectra ε from MUQ_(p) to itself, with the property that ε([CPⁿ]) is [CPⁿ] if n+1 is a power of p, and 0 otherwise. The spectrum BP is the image of this idempotent ε.

The coefficient ring ${\displaystyle \pi _{*}({\text{BP}})}$ is a polynomial algebra over ${\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} _{(p)}}$ on generators ${\displaystyle v_{n}}$ in degrees ${\displaystyle 2(p^{n}-1)}$ for ${\displaystyle n\geq 1}$.

${\displaystyle {\text{BP}}_{*}({\text{BP}})}$ is isomorphic to the polynomial ring ${\displaystyle \pi _{*}({\text{BP}})[t_{1},t_{2},\ldots ]}$ over ${\displaystyle \pi _{*}({\text{BP}})}$ with generators ${\displaystyle t_{i}}$ in ${\displaystyle {\text{BP}}_{2(p^{i}-1)}({\text{BP}})}$ of degrees ${\displaystyle 2(p^{i}-1)}$.

The cohomology of the Hopf algebroid ${\displaystyle (\pi _{*}({\text{BP}}),{\text{BP}}_{*}({\text{BP}}))}$ is the initial term of the Adams–Novikov spectral sequence for calculating p-local homotopy groups of spheres.

BP is the universal example of a complex oriented cohomology theory whose associated formal group law is p-typical.

• List of cohomology theories#Brown–Peterson cohomology

• Adams, J. Frank (1974), Stable homotopy and generalised homology, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-00524-9
• Brown, Edgar H. Jr.; Peterson, Franklin P. (1966), "A spectrum whose Z_p cohomology is the algebra of reduced p^th powers", Topology, 5 (2): 149–154, doi:10.1016/0040-9383(66)90015-2, MR 0192494.
• Quillen, Daniel (1969), "On the formal group laws of unoriented and complex cobordism theory" (PDF), Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 75 (6): 1293–1298, doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1969-12401-8, MR 0253350.
• Ravenel, Douglas C. (2003), Complex cobordism and stable homotopy groups of spheres (2nd ed.), AMS Chelsea, ISBN 978-0-8218-2967-7
• Wilson, W. Stephen (1982), Brown-Peterson homology: an introduction and sampler, CBMS Regional Conference Series in Mathematics, vol. 48, Washington, D.C.: Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, ISBN 978-0-8219-1699-5, MR 0655040