Semi-Topological K-Homology and Thomason''s Theorem

In this paper, we introduce the 'semi-topological K-homology' of complex varieties, a theory related to semi-topological K-theory much as connective topological K-homology is related to connective topological K-theory. Our main theorem is that the semi-topological K-homology of a smooth, quasi-projective complex variety Y coincides with the connective topological K-homology of the associated analytic space Y ^an. From this result, we deduce a pair of results relating semi-topological K-theory with connective topological K-theory. In particular, we prove that the 'Bott inverted' semi-topological K-theory of a smooth, projective complex variety X coincides with the topological K-theory of X ^an. In combination with a result of Friedlander and the author, this gives a new proof, in the special case of smooth, projective complex varieties, of Thomason's celebrated theorem that 'Bott inverted' algebraic K-theory with /n coefficients coincides with topological K-theory with /n coefficients.     

Personal Reminiscences of the Birth of Algebraic K-theory

These informal reminiscences, presented at the ICTP 2002 Conference on algebraic K-theory, recount the trajectory in the author's early research, from work on the Serre Conjecture (on projective modules over polynomial algebras), via ideas from algebraic geometry and topology, to the ideas and constructions that eventually contributed to the founding of algebraic K-theory. The solution of the Congruence Subgroup Problem is presented as a pivotal event.     

Rational Surfaces with Many Nodes

We describe smooth rational projective algebraic surfaces over an algebraically closed field of characteristic different from 2 which contain n b ₂ –2 disjoint smooth rational curves with self-intersection –2, where b ₂ is the second Betti number. In the last section this is applied to the study of minimal complex surfaces of general type with p _g = 0 and K² = 8, 9 which admit an automorphism of order 2.     

Rigidity for orientable functors

In the following paper we introduce the notion of orientable functor (orientable cohomology theory) on the category of projective smooth schemes and define a family of transfer maps. Applying this technique, we prove that with finite coefficients orientable cohomology of a projective variety is invariant with respect to the base-change given by an extension of algebraically closed fields. This statement generalizes the classical result of Suslin, concerning algebraic K-theory of algebraically closed fields. Besides K-theory, we treat such examples of orientable functors as etale cohomology, motivic cohomology, algebraic cobordism. We also demonstrate a method to endow algebraic cobordism with multiplicative structure and Chern classes.     

Topological K-Theory of Algebraic K-Theory Spectra

Let KX denote the algebraic K-theory spectrum of a regular Noetherian scheme X. Under mild additional hypotheses on X, we construct a spectral sequence converging to the topological K-theory of KX. The spectral sequence starts from the étale homology of X with coefficients in a certain copresheaf constructed from roots of unity. As examples we consider number rings, number fields, local fields, smooth curves over a finite field, and smooth varieties over the complex numbers.     

Adams Operations for Bivariant K-Theory and a Filtration Using Projective Lines

We establish the existence of Adams operations on the members of a filtration of K-theory which is defined using products of projective lines. We also show that this filtration induces the gamma filtration on the rational K-groups of a smooth variety over a field of characteristic zero.     

Algebraic K-Theory and the Conjectural Leibniz K-Theory

The analogy between algebraic K-theory and cyclic homology is used to build a program aiming at understanding the algebraic K-theory of fields and the periodicity phenomena in algebraic K-theory. In particular, we conjecture the existence of a Leibniz K-theory which would play the role of Hochschild homology. We propose a motivated presentation for the Leibniz K ₂-group ofa field.     

Real C*-Algebras, United K-Theory, and the Künneth Formula

We define united K-theory for real C^*-algebras, generalizing Bousfield's topological united K-theory. United K-theory incorporates three functors – real K-theory, complex K-theory, and self-conjugate K-theory – and the natural transformations among them. The advantage of united K-theory over ordinary K-theory lies in its homological algebraic properties, which allow us to construct a Künneth-type, nonsplitting, short exact sequence whose middle term is the united K-theory of the tensor product of two real C^*-algebras A and B which holds as long as the complexification of A is in the bootstrap category . Since united K-theory contains ordinary K-theory, our sequence provides a way to compute the K-theory of the tensor product of two real C^*-algebras. As an application, we compute the united K-theory of the tensor product of two real Cuntz algebras. Unlike in the complex case, it turns out that the isomorphism class of the tensor product is not determined solely by the greatest common divisor of K and l. Hence, we have examples of nonisomorphic, simple, purely infinite, real C^*-algebras whose complexifications are isomorphic.     

Algebraic geometry of topological spaces I

We use techniques from both real and complex algebraic geometry to study K-theoretic and related invariants of the algebra C(X) of continuous complex-valued functions on a compact Hausdorff topological space X. For example, we prove a parameterized version of a theorem by Joseph Gubeladze; we show that if M is a countable, abelian, cancellative, torsion-free, semi-normal monoid, and X is contractible, then every finitely generated projective module over C(X)[M] is free. The particular case gives a parameterized version of the celebrated theorem proved independently by Daniel Quillen and Andrei Suslin that finitely generated projective modules over a polynomial ring over a field are free. The conjecture of Jonathan Rosenberg which predicts the homotopy invariance of the negative algebraic K-theory of C(X) follows from the particular case . We also give algebraic conditions for a functor from commutative algebras to abelian groups to be homotopy invariant on C ^*-algebras, and for a homology theory of commutative algebras to vanish on C ^*-algebras. These criteria have numerous applications. For example, the vanishing criterion applied to nil K-theory implies that commutative C ^*-algebras are K-regular. As another application, we show that the familiar formulas of Hochschild–Kostant–Rosenberg and Loday–Quillen for the algebraic Hochschild and cyclic homology of the coordinate ring of a smooth algebraic variety remain valid for the algebraic Hochschild and cyclic homology of C(X). Applications to the conjectures of Beĭlinson-Soulé and Farrell–Jones are also given.     

Techniques,computations, and conjectures for semi-topological <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>-theory

We establish the existence of an Atiyah-Hirzebruch-like spectral sequence relating the morphic cohomology groups of a smooth, quasi-projective complex variety to its semi-topological K-groups. This spectral sequence is compatible with (and, indeed, is built from) the motivic spectral sequence that relates the motivic cohomology and algebraic K-theory of varieties, and it is also compatible with the classical Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence in algebraic topology. In the second part of this paper, we use this spectral sequence in conjunction with another computational tool that we introduce — namely, a variation on the integral weight filtration of the Borel-Moore (singular) homology of complex varieties introduced by H. Gillet and C. Soulé – to compute the semi-topological K-theory of a large class of varieties. In particular, we prove that for curves, surfaces, toric varieties, projective rational three-folds, and related varieties, the semi-topological K-groups and topological K-groups are isomorphic in all degrees permitted by cohomological considerations. We also formulate integral conjectures relating semi-topological K-theory to topological K-theory analogous to more familiar conjectures (namely, the Quillen-Lichtenbaum and Beilinson-Lichtenbaum Conjectures) concerning mod-n algebraic K-theory and motivic cohomology. In particular, we prove a local vanishing result for morphic cohomology which enables us to formulate precisely a conjectural identification of morphic cohomology by A. Suslin. Our computations verify that these conjectures hold for the list of varieties above.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 19E20, 19E15, 14F43The first author was partially supported by the NSF and the NSAThe second author was supported by the Helen M. Galvin Fellowship of Northwestern UniversityThe third author was partially supported by the NSF and the NSA     

Algebraic K-theory of Normed Algebras

Quillen's algebraic K-theory of discrete rings is extended to the category of normed algebras over a commutative Banach ring k with unit and its relationship with topological K-theory is established. Sufficient conditions for the isomorphism of algebraic and topological K-groups on the category of real normed algebras are given. The isomorphism of algebraic and topological K-functors on the category of polynomial extensions of stable C-algebras is proved.     

Standard P3-bundles of exponent two on algebraic surfaces

Let V_K be a twisted form of P³ over the function field of an algebraic surface with Pic V_K generated by the half of the canonical line bundle. We construct an algebraic fibre space V → X projective flat over a smooth projective surface X with the generic fibre V _K → Spac K satisfying some properties.     

Rational isomorphisms between K-theories and cohomology theories

The well known isomorphism relating the rational algebraic K-theory groups and the rational motivic cohomology groups of a smooth variety over a field of characteristic 0 is shown to be realized by a map (the Segre map) of infinite loop spaces. Moreover, the associated Chern character map on rational homotopy groups is shown to be a ring isomorphism. A technique is introduced that establishes a useful general criterion for a natural transformation of functors on quasi-projective complex varieties to induce a homotopy equivalence of semi-topological singular complexes. Since semi-topological K-theory and morphic cohomology can be formulated as the semi-topological singular complexes associated to algebraic K-theory and motivic cohomology, this criterion provides a rational isomorphism between the semi-topological K-theory groups and the morphic cohomology groups of a smooth complex variety. Consequences include a Riemann-Roch theorem for the Chern character on semi-topological K-theory and an interpretation of the topological filtration on singular cohomology groups in K-theoretic terms.     

The Bass Conjecture and Group von Neumann Algebras

The precise relationship between the Bass conjecture for the Hattori–Stallings trace for projective ZG-modules and the map from reduced K-theory of ZG to reduced K-theory of the von Neumann algebra, NG, of G, of G is determined. As a consequence it is shown this map is zero for all groups G. It is also shown that the map induced on K-theory from the inclusion of NG to the ring of closed, densely defined operators affiliated to NG is an isomorphism. Together with the above result, this gives some positive evidence for the validity of the Division Ring Conjecture for torsion free groups.     

The Algebraic K-Theory Spectrum of a 2-Adic Local Field

We explicitly determine the homotopy type of the 2-completed algebraic K-theory spectrum KF, where F is an arbitrary finite extension of the 2-adic rational numbers. The answer is formulated in terms of topological complex K-theory and the K-theory of suitable finite fields, suspended copies of which are glued together by connecting maps that depend on the Iwasawa theory of F.     

Some Algebraic Properties of Cerf Diagrams of One-Parameter Function Families

We obtain results concerning Arnold's problem about a generalization of the Pontryagin-Thom construction in cobordism theory to real algebraic functions. The Pontryagin-Thom construction in the Wells form is transferred to the space of real functions. The relation of the problem with algebraic K-theory and the h-principle due to Eliashberg and Mishachev is revealed.     

Structure Theorem of Kummer étale K-group

In this paper we develop a K-theory of log schemes by using vector bundles on the Ket site. Then, for a wide class of log varieties, we describe the structure of their K-groups in terms of the usual algebraic K-groups.     

Mixed Hodge structure in cyclic homology and algebraic K-theory, 1

Deligne defined the notion of a mixed Hodge structure (MHS) and proved that every quasiprojective variety over has a natural MHS on its cohomology. This paper establishes similar results for cyclic homology and the algebraic K-theory of simply connected quasi-projective varieties over . In the nonsimply connected case, an MHS is established on certain quotient groups of algebraic K-theory.Supported by a NSERC University Research Fellowship and operating grant.     

On the algebraic K-theory of the complex K-theory spectrum

Let p≥5 be a prime, let ku be the connective complex K-theory spectrum, and let K(ku) be the algebraic K-theory spectrum of ku. In this paper we study the p-primary homotopy type of the spectrum K(ku) by computing its mod (p,v ₁) homotopy groups. We show that up to a finite summand, these groups form a finitely generated free module over the polynomial algebra \mathbbF_p[b]{\mathbb{F}}_{p}[b], where b is a class of degree 2p+2 defined as a “higher Bott element”.     

On the field of definition of vector bundles on real varieties

We consider the possibility of defining over small fields the generators for theK-theory of strongly algebraic vector bundles on a real smooth variety. Furthermore we discuss how to construct in an explicit way algebraic models (defined over small fields and with other good arithmetic properties) of two-dimensional disconnected differential manifolds (and related singular spaces).Dedicated to the memory of C. BanicaThis work was partially sponsored by MURST and GNSAGA of CNR (Italy).