The fiber of the linearization map \(A(*) \to K(\mathbb{Z})\) (Q676981)

The purpose of this paper is to compare the homotopy groups of \(K(\mathbb{Z})\) and \(A(*)\), where \(K(\mathbb{Z})=K_0(\mathbb{Z})\times BGL(\mathbb{Z})^+\) is the space representing the algebraic \(K\)-theory of \(\mathbb{Z}\), and \(A(*)\) is Waldhausen's algebraic \(K\)-theory of spaces, applied to a point. The second space can also be described as \(A(*)=\mathbb{Z}\times \text{dir}\lim B\)aut\((\vee_{ k}S^n)\), where aut\((\vee_{ k}S^n)\) is the monoid of self-homotopy equivalences of the \(k\)-fold wedge of \(n\)-dimensional spheres, and the maps in the direct system are induced by suspensions and wedges with the identities. There is a ``linearization'' map \(L: A(*)\to K(\mathbb{Z})\), induced by aut\((\vee_{ k}S^n)\to\text{ aut}\bigl(H_n(\vee_{ k}S^n)\bigr)\cong GL_k(\mathbb{Z})\), which is known to be a rational homotopy equivalence. Therefore, the homotopy groups of hofib\((L)\), the homotopy fiber of \(L\), which measure the difference between the homotopy groups of \(A(*)\) and \(K(\mathbb{Z})\), are finite. The main result of the paper is Theorem 6.4, which contains the description of \(\pi_*\text{hofib}(L))\), completed at an odd prime \(p\), in a range of dimensions depending on \(p\) (up to approximately \(2p^3\)). The precise formulation is quite complicated, but in lower dimensions, for \(i<2(p-1)p-2\), \(\pi_i\text{hofib}(L))\) is isomorphic to \(\mathbb{Z}_p\) if \(i=2p-2\), \(4p-4\), \(4p-2\), \(6p-6\), \(6p-4\), \(6p-2,\dots,2(p-1)^2,\dots,2(p-1)p-4\), and is trivial otherwise. To obtain the result, the authors compare \(L\) with the corresponding map \(L: TC(*)\to TC(\mathbb{Z})\) in topological cyclic homology, which is better suited for computations, and derive the splitting \(\Omega\text{ hofib}(L)\simeq \Omega\text{ Cok }J\times\text{Cok} J\times \Omega\text{ hofib}(l)\), where \(\text{Cok} J\) is the space appearing in Adams' conjecture and \(l\) is some map in the topological cyclic homology. The knowledge of the homotopy groups of \(\text{Cok }J\), together with computations concerning \(\text{hofib}(l)\) yield the result mentioned above.