\(K\)-theory of endomorphisms, the \textit{TR}-trace, and zeta functions (Q6965842)

Trace maps to topological Hochschild homology (\(\mathrm{THH}\)), topological restriction homology (\(\mathrm{TR}\)), and topological cyclic homology (\(\mathrm{TC}\)) are fundamental tools for computing algebraic \(K\)-theory. In the paper under review, the authors study trace maps to \(\mathrm{THH}\) and \(\mathrm{TR}\) in a way that highlights their connection to traces in bicategories with shadow and establish a relation between \(\mathrm{TR}\)-traces, periodic-point invariants, and Lefschetz zeta functions.\N\NIn more detail, the authors use the framework of Waldhausen categories enriched in orthogonal spectra to construct a general form of the Dennis trace map from endomorphism \(K\)-theory to \(\mathrm{THH}\). This connects to bicategorical traces and specializes to a trace map \(\tilde{K}(A;M) \to \mathrm{THH}(A;M)\) where \(A\) is a ring spectrum, \(M\) is an \(A\)-bimodule, \(\mathrm{THH}(A;M)\) is the \(\mathrm{THH}\) of \(A\) with coefficients in \(M\), and \(\tilde{K}(A;M)\) is the cofiber of the map \(K(A) \to K(A;M)\) to the algebraic \(K\)-theory of \(M\)-twisted endomorphisms of perfect \(A\)-modules.\N\NBy carefully studying equivariance properties of these invariants of spectrally enriched Waldhausen-categories, the authors lift the trace map \(\tilde{K}(A;M) \to \mathrm{THH}(A;M)\) to a \(\mathrm{TR}\)-trace \(\tilde{K}(A;M) \to \mathrm{TR}(A;M)\). One main application is that for a basepoint preserving self-map \(f\colon X \to X\) of a connected finite complex, there is an associated class in a suitable \(0\)th endomorphism \(K\)-theory term that is mapped by the \(\mathrm{TR}\)-trace to the periodic-point invariant \(R(\psi^{\infty}(f))\) studied by \textit{C. Malkiewich} and \textit{K. Ponto} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2022, No. 4, 2401--2459 (2022; Zbl 1490.57033)]. The canonical map to \(\pi_0(\mathrm{TR}(\mathbb Z))\) sends this class to the Lefschetz zeta function of \(f\) alluded to in the title.