Waldhausen additivity: classical and quasicategorical

Algebraic (K)-theory of spaces (19D10) Simplicial sets and complexes in algebraic topology (55U10) Topological categories, foundations of homotopy theory (55U40)

Abstract: We use a simplicial product version of Quillen's Theorem A to prove classical Waldhausen Additivity of wS., which says that the "subobject" and "quotient" functors of cofiber sequences induce a weak equivalence wS.E(A,C,B)--> wS.A x wS.B . A consequence is Additivity for the Waldhausen K-theory spectrum of the associated split exact sequence, namely a stable equivalence of spectra K(A)vK(B)--> K(E(A,C,B)). This paper is dedicated to transferring these proofs to the quasicategorical setting and developing Waldhausen quasicategories and their sequences. We also give sufficient conditions for a split exact sequence to be equivalent to a standard one. These conditions are always satisfied by stable quasicategories, so Waldhausen K-theory sends any split exact sequence of pointed stable quasicategories to a split cofiber sequence. Presentability is not needed. In an effort to make the article self-contained, we recall all the necessary results from the theory of quasicategories, and prove a few quasicategorical results that are not in the literature.

Review text

Generalizing various algebraic \(K\)-theory constructions from the framework of categories to the context of quasi-categories, or categories up to homotopy, has been a topic of much recent interest. Some of these modern treatments have addressed this question from the point of view of characterizing algebraic \(K\)-theory as some kind of universal property; for example, Blumberg, Gepner, and Tabuada develop algebraic \(K\)-theory for stable quasi-categories in this way. For the still more general framework of Waldhausen quasi-categories, which are natural generalizations of Waldhausen categories (or categories with cofibrations), Barwick takes a similar approach. In this paper under review, the authors address the question of how to set up and prove essential theorems for the algebraic \(K\)-theory of Waldhausen quasi-categories, but in a way that more closely resembles the classical treatment. The main result is a version of the Additivity Theorem for Waldhausen quasi-categories. The authors begin by re-proving the Additivity Theorem for (ordinary) Waldhausen categories, but in a way amenable to generalization to quasi-categories. This approach makes the passage to quasi-categories more transparent, and thus it is likely to be accessible to readers more familiar with Waldhausen's original constructions but perhaps less familiar with the setting of quasi-categories. Further facilitating this goal, the paper includes quite a bit of background material about quasi-categories that are used in the proof. The paper also includes some results on split exact sequences in a Waldhausen quasi-category.

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