On a construction for the generators of the polynomial algebra as a module over the Steenrod algebra

Abstract: Let $P_n$ be the graded polynomial algebra $\mathbb F_2[x_1,x_2,\ldots ,x_n]$ with the degree of each generator $x_i$ being 1, where $\mathbb F_2$ denote the prime field of two elements. The Peterson hit problem is to find a minimal generating set for $P_n$ regarded as a module over the mod-2 Steenrod algebra, $\mathcal{A}$. Equivalently, we want to find a vector space basis for $\mathbb F_2 \otimes_{\mathcal A} P_n$ in each degree $d$. Such a basis may be represented by a list of monomials of degree $d$. In this paper, we present a construction for the $\mathcal A$-generators of $P_n$ and prove some properties of it. We also explicitly determine a basis of $\mathbb F_2 \otimes_{\mathcal A} P_n$ for $n = 5$ and the degree $d = 15.2^s - 5$ with $s$ an arbitrary positive integer. These results are used to verify Singer's conjecture for the fifth Singer algebraic transfer in respective degree.