Units of ring spectra and their traces in algebraic K-theory (Q1882828)

Let \(R\) be a commutative ring spectrum and \(GL_{1}(R)\) its units. There is a natural map \(GL_{1}(R)\to K(R)\) (the algebraic \(K\)-theory of \(R\)). On the other hand there is a trace map \(tr:K(R)\to THH(R)\) (the topological Hochschild homology of \(R\)) [see \textit{M. Bökstedt}, ``Topological Hochschild homology'', preprint, Bielefeld (1985)]. Moreover, the natural inclusion \(\Omega^{\infty}(R)\to THH(R)\) has a split map \(r: THH(R)\to \Omega^{\infty}(R)\). Next, let \(\eta_{R}\) be the homotopy class of the composition \[ BGL_{1}(R)\to K(R){\buildrel tr \over \rightarrow}THH(R) {\buildrel r \over \rightarrow}\Omega^{\infty}(R). \] The main theorem in this paper is the following Theorem 6.2: The homotopy class of \(\eta_{R}\) is represented by the composition \[ BGL_{1}(R)\to L(BGL_{1}(R)){\buildrel \sim \over \leftarrow} B^{cyc}GL_{1}(R){\buildrel r' \over \rightarrow}GL_{1}(R)\to \Omega^{\infty}(R), \] where \(L(\;)\) denotes the free loops, the first map is the inclusion of constant loops, \(B^{cyc}GL_{1}(R)\) is the cyclic bar construction, and \(r'\) is a natural split for the natural inclusion \(GL_{1}(R)\to B^{cyc}GL_{1}(R).\)