We analyze in homological terms the homotopy fixed point spectrum of a T-equivariant commutative S-algebra R. There is a homological homotopy fixed point spectral sequence with E^2_s,t = H^-s_gp(T; H_t(R; F_p)), converging conditionally to the continuous homology H^c_s+t(R^hT; F_p) of the homotopy fixed point spectrum. We show that there are Dyer-Lashof operations beta^epsilon Q^i acting on this algebra spectral sequence, and that its differentials are completely determined by those originating

more »

... on the vertical axis. More surprisingly, we show that for each class x in the ^2r-term of the spectral sequence there are 2r other classes in the E^2r-term (obtained mostly by Dyer-Lashof operations on x) that are infinite cycles, i.e., survive to the E^infty-term. We apply this to completely determine the differentials in the homological homotopy fixed point spectral sequences for the topological Hochschild homology spectra R = THH(B) of many S-algebras, including B = MU, BP, ku, ko and tmf. Similar results apply for all finite subgroups C of T, and for the Tate- and homotopy orbit spectral sequences. This work is part of a homological approach to calculating topological cyclic homology and algebraic K-theory of commutative S-algebras.