Higher topological Hochschild homology of periodic complex K-theory (Q2215627)

The topological Hochschild homology \(\mathrm{THH}(R)\) of a commutative structured ring spectrum \(R\) can be defined as the tensor of \(R\) with the circle \(S^1\) in commutative ring spectra and can therefore be viewed as a commutative \(R\)-algebra. The purpose of the paper under review is to give simple descriptions of \(\mathrm{THH}(\mathrm{KU})\) and its higher variants as commutative \(\mathrm{KU}\)-algebras. Here \(\mathrm{KU}\) is the periodic complex \(K\)-theory spectrum. The first main result is that \(\mathrm{THH}(\mathrm{KU})\) is equivalent to either of the commutative \(\mathrm{KU}\)-algebras \(\mathrm{KU}[K(\mathbb Z,3)]\), \(\mathrm{KU} \vee \Sigma \mathrm{KU}_{\mathbb Q}\), or \(F(\Sigma \mathrm{KU}_{\mathbb Q})\). Here \(\mathrm{KU}[K(\mathbb Z,3)]\) is a commutative \(\mathrm{KU}\)-algebra with underlying \(\mathrm{KU}\)-module \(\mathrm{KU} \wedge K(\mathbb Z,3)_+\), the commutative \(\mathrm{KU}\)-algebra \(\mathrm{KU} \vee \Sigma \mathrm{KU}_{\mathbb Q}\) is the square-zero extension of \(\mathrm{KU}\) by the suspension of the rationalization of \(\mathrm{KU}\), and \(F\) denotes the free commutative \(\mathrm{KU}\)-algebra algebra functor. These descriptions are analogous to a result by \textit{J. E. McClure} and \textit{R. E. Staffeldt} [Am. J. Math. 115, No. 1, 1--45 (1993; Zbl 0770.55010)] that identifies the \(\mathrm{THH}\) of the \(p\)-complete periodic Adams summand of \(\mathrm{KU}\) as a spectrum (but not as a commutative algebra spectrum). The \(n\)-fold iterated topological Hochschild homology \(\mathrm{THH}^n(R)\) of a commutative structured ring spectrum \(R\) can be defined as the tensor of \(R\) with the torus \(T^n\). It is shown that in line with the above description of \(\mathrm{THH}(\mathrm{KU})\), the \(\mathrm{KU}\)-algebra \(\mathrm{THH}^n(\mathrm{KU})\) is of the form \(\mathrm{KU}[G]\) for \(G\) a suitable product of integral Eilenberg-Mac Lane spaces depending on \(n\). The tensor product of \(\mathrm{KU}\) with the \(n\)-sphere \(S^n\) gives a counterpart of Pirashvili's higher order Hochschild homology. The author shows that \(S^n \otimes \mathrm{KU}\) is equivalent to \(\mathrm{KU}[K(\mathbb Z,n+1)]\) and to \(F(S^n \wedge \mathrm{KU}_{\mathbb Q})\). The latter result also leads to an identification of the topological André-Quillen homology of \(\mathrm{KU}\).