The big de Rham-Witt complex

DOI10.1007/S11511-015-0124-YMaRDI QIDQ2340956zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 21 April 2015

Published in Acta Mathematica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1006.3125

de Rham-Witt complex lambda-ring Witt vector

Witt vectors and related rings (13F35) Modules of differentials (13N05) Graded rings and modules (associative rings and algebras) (16W50) Computations of higher (K)-theory of rings (19D50)

Abstract: This paper gives a new and direct construction of the multi-prime big de Rham-Witt complex which is defined for every commutative and unital ring; the original construction by the author and Madsen relied on the adjoint functor theorem and accordingly was very indirect. (The construction given here also corrects the 2-torsion which was not quite correct in the original version.) The new construction is based on the theory of modules and derivations over a lambda-ring which is developed first. The main result in this first part of the paper is that the universal derivation of a lambda-ring is given by the universal derivation of the underlying ring together with an additional structure depending on the lambda-ring structure in question. In the case of the ring of big Witt vectors, this additional structure gives rise to divided Frobenius operators on the module of K"ahler differentials. It is the existence of these divided Frobenius operators that makes the new construction of the big de Rham-Witt complex possible. It is further shown that the big de Rham-Witt complex behaves well with respect to 'etale maps, and finally, the big de Rham-Witt complex of the ring of integers is explicitly evaluated. The latter complex may be interpreted as the complex of differentials along the leaves of a foliation of Spec Z.

Review text

The author provides a new construction of the big re Rham-Witt complex, a tool he introduced jointly with Madsen to analyse topological Hochschild spectra of rings [\textit{L. Hesselholt} and \textit{I. Madsen}, Contemp. Math. 271, 127--140 (2001; Zbl 0992.19002)]. The new construction is more explicit than the original one, and also incorporates a corrected account of the 2-torsion. The constructions rests on a theory of modules and derivations over \(\lambda\)-rings, developed in \S2 of the paper. It is shown that for every \(\lambda\)-ring there exists a universal \(\lambda\)-derivation, and that the resulting module of differentials is the usual one when neglecting the \(\lambda\)-structure (Theorem A). In \S3--\S4 the author presents the actual construction. The notion of a Witt complex is introduced, and the big de Rham-Witt complex of a ring is defined to be the initial Witt complex of a ring. Existence of such a universal object is established in Theorem B. The paper finishes with an analysis of how the big de-Rham Witt complex behaves with respect to étale maps (Theorem C, \S5), and with an explicit computation of the big de Rham-Witt complex of the ring of integers in~\S6. As promised in the introduction the description is very explicit, but too long to be repeated here. The paper also contains a section on Witt vectors (\S1), and a very helpful introduction. While the material is necessarily rather technical, the presentation is very clear throughout, and supported by helpful recollections of material from other publications.

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