Additivity for the parametrized topological Euler characteristic and Reidemeister torsion (Q2465478)

The category of homotopy finitely dominated retractive spaces over a space \(X\) is a Waldhausen category and its \(K\)-theory space \(A(X)\) is the so-called \(A\)-theory of~\(X\). The following constructions are due to \textit{W. Dwyer, M. Weiss}, and \textit{B. Williams} [Acta Math. 190, No. 1, 1--104 (2003; Zbl 1077.19002)]. The object \(X \times \{ \pm 1 \} \leftrightarrows X\) represents a point \(\chi^h(X)\) in \(A(X)\) called the homotopy Euler characteristic. The functor \(A(-)\) does not satisfy excision, but there is an excisive version \(A^{\%}(X)\) together with an assembly map \(\alpha: A^{\%}(X) \rightarrow A(X)\). The topological Euler characteristic is a certain lift \(\chi^t(X)\) of \(\chi^h(X)\) defined when \(X\) is an Euclidean neighborhood retract. The parametrized version mentioned in the title is defined for fibrations \(F \rightarrow E \rightarrow B\). Consider the fiberwise \(A\)-construction \(A(F) \rightarrow A_B(E) \rightarrow B\). The parametrized homotopy Euler characteristic can then be thought of as a section restricting to \(\chi^h(F)\) over each point in~\(B\) and it goes similarly in the topological case. The first result of the article under review is that \(\chi^t\) satisfies an additivity formula. This means roughly that, if \(p: E \rightarrow B\) is a bundle of closed topological manifolds obtained as a push-out of sub-bundles \(p_i: E_i \rightarrow B\) (for \(0 \leq i \leq 2\)), then there exists a preferred path in \(A^{\%}(p)\) from \(\chi^t(p_2) - j_{0 *} \chi^t(p_0)\), where \(j_i: E_i \subset E\) denote the inclusions. This is the main ingredient in the proof of additivity for topological Reidemeister torsion. A locally constant sheaf \(\rho: V \rightarrow E\) of projective \(R\)-modules induces a functor between the Waldhausen category of homotopy finitely dominated retractive spaces over the base \(E\) and that of chain complexes of projective \(R\)-modules, chain homotopy equivalent to finitely generated complexes. This induces in turn a map of \(K\)-theory spaces \(A(E) \rightarrow K(R)\). The homotopy Reidemeister torsion is defined when \(H_*(E, \rho) = 0\) as a point in the homotopy fiber (and its image in \(A(E)\) is \(\chi^h(E)\)). There is also a topological version of this and the parametrized analogues. The second author proved [\textit{W. Dorabiała}, K-Theory 25, No.~3, 251--276 (2002; Zbl 1003.19001)] that the homotopy parametrized torsion satisfies an additivity formula. The main result of this article is that so does the topological parametrized torsion.