THH and base-change for Galois extensions of ring spectra (Q518810)

\textit{C. A. Weibel} and \textit{S. C. Geller} [Comment. Math. Helv. 66, No. 3, 368--388 (1991; Zbl 0741.19007)] have shown that Hochschild homology for commutative rings satisfies an étale base-change result. Motivated by this fact, the author considers the following general question on the topological Hochschild homology \(\text{THH}(A)\) of an \({\mathbb E}_\infty\)-ring spectrum \(A\): Question. Let \(A \to B\) be a morphism of \({\mathbb E}_\infty\)-ring spectra. When is the natural map \(\text{THH}(A)\otimes_AB \to \text{THH}(B)\) an equivalence? One of the two main results in the paper gives an answer to the question stating that for an \({\mathbb E}_\infty\)-ring \(R\) and an étale morphism \(A \to B\) of \({\mathbb E}_\infty\)-\(R\)-algebras (possibly nonconnective), the map \(\text{THH}^R(A)\otimes_AB \to \text{THH}^R(B)\) is an equivalence. Here the étaleness of the map \(A\to B\) is defined so that the natural map \(\pi_*(A)\otimes_{\pi_0(A)}\pi_0(B) \to \pi_*(B)\) is an isomorphism and \(\pi_0(A) \to \pi_0(B)\) is étale. The key to proving the theorem is that the construction of \(\text{THH}\) can be interpreted as tensoring with \(S^1\) by \textit{R. McCarthy} and \textit{V. Minasian} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 185, No. 1--3, 239--258 (2003; Zbl 1051.55005)]. Another theorem asserts that there exists a faithful \(G\)-Galois extension \(A\to B\) of \({\mathbb E}_\infty\)-ring spectra for \(G\) a finite group such that the map in the question above is not an equivalence. The degree-\(p\) map from \(S^1\) to itself gives rise to the counterexample.