Riemann–Roch for Algebraic Stacks: I

In this paper we establish Riemann–Roch and Lefschtez–Riemann–Roch theorems for arbitrary proper maps of finite cohomological dimension between algebraic stacks in the sense of Artin. The Riemann–Roch theorem is established as a natural transformation between the G-theory of algebraic stacks and topological G-theory for stacks: we define the latter as the localization of G-theory by topological K-homology. The Lefschtez–Riemann–Roch is an extension of this including the action of a torus for Deligne–Mumford stacks. This generalizes the corresponding Riemann–Roch theorem (Lefschetz–Riemann–Roch theorem) for proper maps between schemes (that are also equivariant for the action of a torus, respectively) making use of some fundamental results due to Vistoli and Toen. A key result established here is that topological G-theory (as well as rational G-theory) has cohomological descent on the isovariant étale site of an algebraic stack. This extends cohomological descent for topological G-theory on schemes as proved by Thomason.