The bicategory of parameterized spectra has a remarkably rich structure. In particular, it is possible to take traces in this bicategory, which give classical invariants that count fixed points. We can also take equivariant traces, which give significant generalizations of the classical invariants that count periodic points.
Unfortunately, the existence of these traces in general depends on technical statements about the bicategory that can be difficult to verify directly. In this paper, we demonstrate the effectiveness of two tools -- rigidity and deformable functors -- by using them establish the structure we need to take these equivariant traces and to construct periodic-point invariants in a formal way.
Smooth and proper dg-algebras have an Euler class valued in the Hochschild homology of the algebra. This Euler class is worthy of this name since it satisfies many familiar properties including compatibility with the familiar pairing on the Hochschild homology of the algebra and that of its opposite. This compatibility is the Riemann-Roch theorems of Shklyarov and Petit.
In this paper we prove a broad generalization of these Riemann-Roch theorems. We generalize from the bicategory of dg-algebras and their bimodules to monoidal bicategories and from Euler class to traces of non identity maps. Our generalization also implies spectral Riemann-Roch theorems.
We regard this result as an instantiation of a 2-dimensional generalized cobordism hypothesis. This perspective draws the result close to many others that generalize results about Euler characteristics and classes to bicategorical traces.
Coherence theorems are fundamental to how we think about monoidal categories and their generalizations. In this paper we revisit Mac Lane's original proof of coherence for monoidal categories using the Grothendieck construction. This perspective makes the approach of Mac Lane's proof very amenable to generalization. We use the technique to give efficient proofs of many standard coherence theorems and new coherence results for bicategories with shadow and for their functors.
We give an obstruction for lifts and extensions in a model category inspired by Klein and Williams' work on intersection theory. In contrast to the familiar obstructions from algebraic topology, this approach produces a single invariant that is complete in the presences of the appropriate generalizations of dimension and connectivity assumptions.
We show that the characteristic polynomial and the Lefschetz zeta function are manifestations of the trace map from the K-theory of endomorphisms to topological restriction homology (TR). Along the way we generalize Lindenstrauss and McCarthy's map from K-theory of endomorphisms to topological restriction homology, defining it for any Waldhausen category with a compatible enrichment in orthogonal spectra. In particular, this extends their construction from rings to ring spectra. We also give a revisionist treatment of the original Dennis trace map from K-theory to topological Hochschild homology (THH) and explain its connection to traces in bicategories with shadow (also known as trace theories).
We give an explicit point-set construction of the Dennis trace map from the K-theory of endomorphisms KEnd(C) to topological Hochschild homology THH(C) for any spectral Waldhausen category C. We describe the necessary technical foundations, most notably a well-behaved model for the spectral category of diagrams in C indexed by an ordinary category via the Moore end. This is applied to define a version of Waldhausen's S.-construction for spectral Waldhausen categories, which is central to this account of the Dennis trace map.
Our goals are both convenience and transparency---we provide all details except for a proof of the additivity theorem for THH, which is taken for granted---and the exposition is concerned not with originality of ideas, but rather aims to provide a useful resource for learning about the Dennis trace and its underlying machinery.
While not obvious from its initial motivation in linear algebra, there are many context where iterated traces can be defined. In this paper we prove a very general theorem about iterated 2-categorical traces. We show that many Lefschetz-type theorems in the literature are consequences of this result and the new perspective we provide allows for immediate spectral generalizations.
We answer in the affirmative two conjectures made by Klein and Williams. First, in a range of dimensions, the equivariant Reidemeister trace defines a complete obstruction to removing n-periodic points from a self-map f. Second, this obstruction defines a class in topological restriction homology. We prove these results using duality and trace for bicategories. This allows for immediate generalizations, including a corresponding theorem for the fiberwise Reidemeister trace.
We show that an important classical fixed point invariant, the Reidemeister trace, arises as a topological Hochschild homology transfer. This generalizes a corresponding classical result for the Euler characteristic and is a first step in showing the Reidemeister trace is in the image of the cyclotomic trace. The main result follows from developing the relationship between shadows, topological Hochschild homology, and Morita invariance in bicategorical generality.
Motivated by the operad built from moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, we consider a general class of operads in the category of spaces that satisfy certain homological stability conditions. We prove that such operads are infinite loop space operads in the sense that the group completions of their algebras are infinite loop spaces.
The recent, strong homological stability results of Galatius and Randal-Williams for moduli spaces of even dimensional manifolds can be used to construct examples of operads with homological stability. As a consequence the map to K-theory defined by the action of the diffeomorphisms on the middle dimensional homology can be shown to be a map of infinite loop spaces.
We construct a localization for operads with respect to one-ary operations based on the Dwyer-Kan hammock localization. For an operad O and a sub-monoid of one-ary operations W we associate an operad LO and a canonical map O to LO which takes elements in W to homotopy invertible operations. Furthermore, we give a functor from the category of O-algebras to the category of LO-algebras satisfying an appropriate universal property.
We prove two general decomposition theorems for fixed-point invariants: one for the Lefschetz number and one for the Reidemeister trace. These theorems imply the familiar additivity results for these invariants. Moreover, the proofs of these theorems are essentially formal, taking place in the abstract context of bicategorical traces. This makes generalizations to other contexts straightforward.
We show that in any symmetric monoidal category, if a weight for colimits is absolute, then the resulting colimit of any diagram of dualizable objects is again dualizable. Moreover, in this case, if an endomorphism of the colimit is induced by an endomorphism of the diagram, then its trace can be calculated as a linear combination of traces on the objects in the diagram. The formal nature of this result makes it easy to generalize to traces in homotopical contexts (using derivators) and traces in bicategories. These generalizations include the familiar additivity of the Euler characteristic and Lefschetz number along cofiber sequences, as well as an analogous result for the Reidemeister trace, but also the orbit-counting theorem for sets with a group action, and a general formula for homotopy colimits over EI-categories.
We define a model structure on the category GCat of small categories with an action by a finite group G by lifting the Thomason model structure on Cat. We show there is a Quillen equivalence between GCat with this model structure and GTop with the standard model structure.
Motivated by traces of matrices and Euler characteristics of topological spaces, we expect abstract traces in a symmetric monoidal category to be "additive". When the category is "stable", in some sense, additivity along cofiber sequences is a question about the interaction of stability and the monoidal structure.
May proved such an additivity theorem when the stable structure is a triangulation, based on new axioms for monoidal triangulated categories. In this paper we use stable derivators instead, which are a different model for "stable homotopy theories". We define and study monoidal structures on derivators, providing a context to describe the interplay between stability and monoidal structure using only ordinary category theory and universal properties. We can then perform May's proof of the additivity of traces in a closed monoidal stable derivator without needing extra axioms, as all the needed compatibility is automatic.
We show that stable derivators, like stable model categories, admit Mayer-Vietoris sequences arising from cocartesian squares. Along the way we characterize homotopy exact squares, and give a detection result for colimiting diagrams in derivators. As an application, we show that a derivator is stable if and only if its suspension functor is an equivalence.
The Lefschetz number and fixed point index can be thought of as two different descriptions of the same invariant. The Lefschetz number is algebraic and defined using homology. The index is defined more directly from the topology and is a stable homotopy class. Both the Lefschetz number and index admit generalizations to coincidences and the comparison of these invariants retains its central role. In this paper we show that the identification of the Lefschetz number and index using formal properties of the symmetric monoidal trace extends to coincidence invariants. This perspective on the coincidence index and Lefschetz number also suggests difficulties for generalizations to a coincidence Reidemeister trace.
We prove two general factorization theorems for fixed-point invariants of fibrations: one for the Lefschetz number and one for the Reidemeister trace. These theorems imply the familiar multiplicativity results for the Lefschetz and Nielsen numbers of a fibration. Moreover, the proofs of these theorems are essentially formal, taking place in the abstract context of bicategorical traces. This makes generalizations to other contexts straightforward.
By the Lefschetz fixed point theorem, if an endomorphism of a topological space is fixed-point-free, then its Lefschetz number vanishes. This necessary condition is not usually sufficient, however; for that we need a refinement of the Lefschetz number called the Reidemeister trace.
Abstractly, the Lefschetz number is a trace in a symmetric monoidal category, while the Reidemeister trace is a trace in a bicategory. In this paper, we show that for any symmetric monoidal category with an associated indexed symmetric monoidal category, there is an associated bicategory which produces refinements of trace analogous to the Reidemeister trace. This bicategory also produces a new notion of trace for parametrized spaces with dualizable fibers, which refines the obvious "iberwise" traces by incorporating the action of the fundamental group of the base space. Our abstract framework lays the foundation for generalizations of these ideas to other contexts.
(This paper contains many diagrams and is available in three formats. A color version is linked above. A black and white version intended for printing. A compromise that is acceptable for either.)
We reexamine equivariant generalizations of the Lefschetz number and Reidemeister trace using categorical traces. This gives simple, conceptual descriptions of the invariants and well as direct comparisons to previously defined generalizations. These comparisons are illuminating applications of the additivity and multiplicativity of the categorical trace.
Traces in symmetric monoidal categories are well-known and have many applications; for instance, their functoriality directly implies the Lefschetz fixed point theorem. However, for some applications, such as generalizations of the Lefschetz theorem, one needs "noncommutative" traces, such as the Hattori-Stallings trace for modules over noncommutative rings. In this paper we study a generalization of the symmetric monoidal trace which applies to noncommutative situations; its context is a bicategory equipped with an extra structure called a "shadow." In particular, we prove its functoriality and 2-functoriality, which are essential to its applications in fixed-point theory. Throughout we make use of an appropriate "cylindrical" type of string diagram, which we justify formally in an appendix.
The Lefschetz fixed point theorem and its converse have many generalizations. One of these generalizations is to endomorphisms of a space relative to a fixed subspace. In this paper we define relative Lefschetz numbers and Reidemeister traces using traces in bicategories with shadows. We use the functoriality of this trace to identify different forms of these invariants and to prove a relative Lefschetz fixed point theorem and its converse.
The Lefschetz fixed point theorem follows easily from the identification of the Lefschetz number with the fixed point index. This identification is a consequence of the functoriality of the trace in symmetric monoidal categories. There are refinements of the Lefschetz number and the fixed point index that give a converse to the Lefschetz fixed point theorem. An important part of this theorem is the identification of these different invariants. We define a generalization of the trace in symmetric monoidal categories to a trace in bicategories with shadows. We show the invariants used in the converse of the Lefschetz fixed point theorem are examples of this trace and that the functoriality of the trace provides some of the necessary identifications. The methods used here do not use simplicial techniques and so generalize readily to other contexts.
With firm foundations dating only from the 1950s, algebraic topology is a relatively young area of mathematics. There are very few textbooks that treat fundamental topics beyond a first course, and many topics now essential to the field are not treated in any textbook. J. Peter May’s A Concise Course in Algebraic Topology addresses the standard first course material, such as fundamental groups, covering spaces, the basics of homotopy theory, and homology and cohomology. In this sequel, May and his coauthor, Kathleen Ponto, cover topics that are essential for algebraic topologists and others interested in algebraic topology, but that are not treated in standard texts. They focus on the localization and completion of topological spaces, model categories, and Hopf algebras.
The first half of the book sets out the basic theory of localization and completion of nilpotent spaces, using the most elementary treatment the authors know of. It makes no use of simplicial techniques or model categories, and it provides full details of other necessary preliminaries. With these topics as motivation, most of the second half of the book sets out the theory of model categories, which is the central organizing framework for homotopical algebra in general. Examples from topology and homological algebra are treated in parallel. A short last part develops the basic theory of bialgebras and Hopf algebras.
The purpose of this expository note is to describe duality and trace in a symmetric monoidal category, along with important properties (including naturality and functoriality), and to give as many examples as possible. Among other things, this note is intended as background for the generalizations to the context of bicategories and indexed monoidal categories.
