Kan extension and stable homology of Eilenberg-MacLane spaces (Q1922752)

Forty years ago \textit{S. MacLane} defined the homology theory of rings [Centre Belge Rech. math., Colloque de Topologie algébrique, Louvain les 11, 12 et 13 juin 1956, 55-80 (1957; Zbl 0084.26703)]. Recently it was proved that this homology theory is isomorphic to the Bökstedt's topological Hochschild homology [the author and \textit{F. Waldhausen}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 82, 81-98 (1992; Zbl 0767.55010)] and to the stable \(K\)-theory of Waldhausen [\textit{B. I. Dundas} and \textit{R. McCarthy}, Ann. Math., II. Ser. 140, 685-701 (1994; Zbl 0833.55007)]. The original definition of MacLane was based on the cubical construction, which assigns a chain complex \(Q_* (A)\) to each abelian group \(A\) (see [\textit{S. Eilenberg} and \textit{S. MacLane}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 71, 294-330 (1951; Zbl 0043.25403); \textit{M. Dzhibladze} and the author, J. Algebra 137, 253-296 (1991; Zbl 0724.18005); S. Mac Lane, loc. cit.]). This complex has the following property: Theorem: The homology of \(Q_* (A)\) is isomorphic to the stable homology of the Eilenberg MacLane spaces: \[ H_n \bigl( Q_* (A)\bigr) \cong H_{n+k} \bigl(K(A,k) \bigr), \quad n\leq k-1. \] The original proof of this theorem requires two papers of \textit{S. Eilenberg} and \textit{S. MacLane}, namely the one cited above and [Can. J. Math. 7, 43-53 (1955; Zbl 0064.02701)], and based on the theory of the generic cycles. It was mentioned in the introduction of the `Collected Works' of \textit{S. Eilenberg} and \textit{S. MacLane} (1986; Zbl 0613.01018) that this theory is somewhat mysterious. Here we give a new, simple, proof of this fact.