Homotopical presentations and calculations of algebraic \(K_0\)-groups for rings of continuous functions (Q409060)

In this paper the authors investigate the representability of algebraic \(K\)-theory of function rings for general topological spaces by introducing a new notion of homotopy sets. Let \(K_0(C_{\mathbb{F}}(X))=K_0\circ C_{\mathbb{F}}(X)\) be the algebraic \(K\)-group of the ring \(C_{\mathbb{F}}(X)\) of \(\mathbb{F}\)-valued continuous functions on a topological space \(X\), where \(\mathbb{F}=\mathbb{R}, \mathbb{C}\) or \(\mathbb{H}\). Then we know that the functor \(K_0\circ C_{\mathbb{F}}\) is representable on compact Hausdorff spaces, but this does not always hold true for general topological spaces, which can be verified through concrete examples. In fact two examples are given which help us understand how the idea underlying this paper has arisen. A continuous map \(f : X \to Y\) is called a compactly-bounded map or a \(CB\)-map if the image of \(f\) is contained in a compact subset of \(Y\). Two such maps are said to be \(CB\)-homotopic if there is a \(CB\)-homotopy between them. We denote by \([X, Y]_{CB}\) the set of homotopy classes of \(CB\)-maps from \(X\) to \(Y\), which of course coincides with the usual homotopy set \([X, Y]\) if either \(X\) or \(Y\) is compact. Using this notion of homotopy the authors succeed in generalizing the representability of \(K_0\circ C_{\mathbb{F}}\) on compact spaces to general topological spaces. The result is that the functor \(K_0\circ C_{\mathbb{F}}\) can be presented in the form \(K_0\circ C_{\mathbb{F}}(X)\simeq [X, \mathbb{Z}\times G_\infty(\mathbb{F})]_{CB}\) for any space \(X\) as a group-valued functor, where \(G_\infty(\mathbb{F})\) denotes the infinite Grassmannian. In addition, the authors calculate \(K_0(C_\mathbb{F}(X))\) for a certain class of infinite-dimensional complexes, which is a nice application of this representation.