TITLE: Examples for non-naturality of universal coefficients theorem
QUESTION [30 upvotes]: Does anyone have good examples of a space $X$ and a map $f: X \to X$ so that $f_*: H_*(X) \to H_*(X)$ is the identity but (e.g.) $f_*: H_*(X; \mathbb{F}_2) \to H_*(X; \mathbb{F}_2)$ is not the identity?
Edit: As mentioned in the comments, $f_*$ is an isomorphism on the mod-2 homology, but I don't see why it needs to be the identity.  More precisely, the exact sequence
$$
C(X; \mathbb{Z}) \overset{\times 2}{\longrightarrow} C(X; \mathbb{Z}) \longrightarrow C(X;\mathbb{Z}/2)
$$
gives an exact triangle in homology, which in turn induces a 2-step filtration on $H_*(X; \mathbb{Z}/2)$ (where one step is the image of the map $H_*(X;\mathbb{Z}) \to H_*(X;\mathbb{Z}/2)$).  The assumption that $f_*$ is the identity on integral homology implies that it is the identity on the associated graded space to this filtration, but that still doesn't imply it is the identity.
I came across a similar phenomenon in the context of Heegaard Floer homology, with the rings $(\mathbb{Z}/2)[U]$ and $\mathbb{Z}/2$ playing the roles of $\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{Z}/2$.

REPLY [8 votes]: Here's another solution; it's really the same as the ones Sam and Tom give, but with a more "geometric" flavor.
Start with the unit 2-sphere $S^2\subset \def\R\mathbb{R}\R^3$, and let $r: S^2\to S^2$ be given by reflection across the $xz$-plane ($r(x,y,z)=r(x,-y,z)$).  This passes to a self-map $f: \R P^2\to \R P^2$ on the quotient; it carries the subspace $\R P^1\subset \R P^2$ to itself, which I'm thinking of as the quotient of the circle in the $xy$-plane.  In other words, $f$ is a cellular map, with respect to the "usual" CW-filtration $\R P^0\subset \R P^1\subset \R P^2$.  On the "cellular chain complex" of $\R P^2$, the map $f$ is degree $-1$ on the cells in dimension $1$ and $2$.
Now let $X=\R P^2\cup_{\R P^1} \R P^2$, obtained by gluing two projective planes along a circle.  Let $g:X\to X$ be the self-map which (i) sends the first $\R P^2$ to the second $\R P^2$ by the map $f$, (ii) sends the second $\R P^2$ to the first $\R P^2$ by the map $f$, and thus (iii) sends the common $\R P^1$ to itself by the map $f|\R P^1$.
Since $g$ is a cellular map, its easy to compute its effect on the cellular chain complex of $X$: it's degree $-1$ on the $1$-cell, and it switches the two $2$-cells with each other by degree $-1$ maps.  So it's identity on $H_*(X;\def\Z\mathbb{Z}\Z)$, since $H_1(X;\Z)=\Z/2$ and the "cellular chain" $(1,-1)$ which generates $H_2(X;\Z)=\Z$ is clearly fixed; but it's not the identity on $H_2(X;\Z/2)=\Z/2\oplus \Z/2$, as the switching of the $2$-cells is visible here.
(The generator of $H_2(X;\Z)$ is actually the image of a map $q:S^2\to X$, which you get by gluing the characteristic maps of the two $2$-cells together, and $fq$ differs from $q$ exactly by a 180-degree rotation of the sphere (and so $q$ and $fq$ are homotopic).  This also shows that $X$ is stably equivalent to $S^2\vee \R P^2$.)