Handbook Of K Theory

This handbook offers a compilation of techniques and results in K-theory. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific topic and is written by a leading expert. Many chapters present historical background; some present previously unpublished results, whereas some present the first expository account of a topic; many discuss future directions as well as open problems. It offers an exposition of our current state of knowledge as well as an implicit blueprint for future research.

The relations that could or should exist between algebraic cycles, algebraic K-theory, and the cohomology of - possibly singular - varieties, are the topic of investigation of this book. The author proceeds in an axiomatic way, combining the concepts of twisted Poincaré duality theories, weights, and tensor categories. One thus arrives at generalizations to arbitrary varieties of the Hodge and Tate conjectures to explicit conjectures on l-adic Chern characters for global fields and to certain counterexamples for more general fields. It is to be hoped that these relations ions will in due course be explained by a suitable tensor category of mixed motives. An approximation to this is constructed in the setting of absolute Hodge cycles, by extending this theory to arbitrary varieties. The book can serve both as a guide for the researcher, and as an introduction to these ideas for the non-expert, provided (s)he knows or is willing to learn about K-theory and the standard cohomology theories of algebraic varieties.

Informally, $K$-theory is a tool for probing the structure of a mathematical object such as a ring or a topological space in terms of suitably parameterized vector spaces and producing important intrinsic invariants which are useful in the study of algebr

This handbook covers a wealth of topics from number theory, special attention being given to estimates and inequalities. As a rule, the most important results are presented, together with their refinements, extensions or generalisations. These may be applied to other aspects of number theory, or to a wide range of mathematical disciplines. Cross-references provide new insight into fundamental research. Audience: This is an indispensable reference work for specialists in number theory and other mathematicians who need access to some of these results in their own fields of research.

These notes are based on the course of lectures I gave at Harvard in the fall of 1964. They constitute a self-contained account of vector bundles and K-theory assuming only the rudiments of point-set topology and linear algebra. One of the features of the treatment is that no use is made of ordinary homology or cohomology theory. In fact, rational cohomology is defined in terms of K-theory.The theory is taken as far as the solution of the Hopf invariant problem and a start is mode on the J-homomorphism. In addition to the lecture notes proper, two papers of mine published since 1964 have been reproduced at the end. The first, dealing with operations, is a natural supplement to the material in Chapter III. It provides an alternative approach to operations which is less slick but more fundamental than the Grothendieck method of Chapter III, and it relates operations and filtration. Actually, the lectures deal with compact spaces, not cell-complexes, and so the skeleton-filtration does not figure in the notes. The second paper provides a new approach to K-theory and so fills an obvious gap in the lecture notes.

Algebra, as we know it today, consists of many different ideas, concepts and results. A reasonable estimate of the number of these different items would be somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000. Many of these have been named and many more could (and perhaps should) have a name or a convenient designation. Even the nonspecialist is likely to encounter most of these, either somewhere in the literature, disguised as a definition or a theorem or to hear about them and feel the need for more information. If this happens, one should be able to find enough information in this Handbook to judge if it is worthwhile to pursue the quest. In addition to the primary information given in the Handbook, there are references to relevant articles, books or lecture notes to help the reader. An excellent index has been included which is extensive and not limited to definitions, theorems etc. The Handbook of Algebra will publish articles as they are received and thus the reader will find in this third volume articles from twelve different sections. The advantages of this scheme are two-fold: accepted articles will be published quickly and the outline of the Handbook can be allowed to evolve as the various volumes are published. A particularly important function of the Handbook is to provide professional mathematicians working in an area other than their own with sufficient information on the topic in question if and when it is needed. - Thorough and practical source for information - Provides in-depth coverage of new topics in algebra - Includes references to relevant articles, books and lecture notes

From the Introduction: "These notes are taken from a course on algebraic K-theory [given] at the University of Chicago in 1967. They also include some material from an earlier course on abelian categories, elaborating certain parts of Gabriel's thesis. The results on K-theory are mostly of a very general nature."

Algebraic K-theory encodes important invariants for several mathematical disciplines, spanning from geometric topology and functional analysis to number theory and algebraic geometry. As is commonly encountered, this powerful mathematical object is very hard to calculate. Apart from Quillen's calculations of finite fields and Suslin's calculation of algebraically closed fields, few complete calculations were available before the discovery of homological invariants offered by motivic cohomology and topological cyclic homology. This book covers the connection between algebraic K-theory and Bökstedt, Hsiang and Madsen's topological cyclic homology and proves that the difference between the theories are ‘locally constant’. The usefulness of this theorem stems from being more accessible for calculations than K-theory, and hence a single calculation of K-theory can be used with homological calculations to obtain a host of ‘nearby’ calculations in K-theory. For instance, Quillen's calculation of the K-theory of finite fields gives rise to Hesselholt and Madsen's calculations for local fields, and Voevodsky's calculations for the integers give insight into the diffeomorphisms of manifolds. In addition to the proof of the full integral version of the local correspondence between K-theory and topological cyclic homology, the book provides an introduction to the necessary background in algebraic K-theory and highly structured homotopy theory; collecting all necessary tools into one common framework. It relies on simplicial techniques, and contains an appendix summarizing the methods widely used in the field. The book is intended for graduate students and scientists interested in algebraic K-theory, and presupposes a basic knowledge of algebraic topology.