Chromatic Purity of Dualizable Categories

Abstract

We develop the chromatic theory of dualizable stable categories, with chromatic purity for continuous $K$-theory at its center. We generalize the chromatic purity theorem for algebraic $K$-theory to continuous $K$-theory of dualizable stable categories and reformulate it as the purity of $H$-unital rings. Using categorical completion theory, we construct chromatic fracture squares and obtain a refinement of chromatic purity: for every dualizable stable category $\mathcal{C}$, the $T(n)\oplus T(n-1)$-completion map induces an equivalence $$K_{T(n)}^{\mathrm{cont}}(\mathcal{C})\stackrel{\simeq }{\to }{K}_{T(n)}^{\mathrm{cont}}({\mathrm{Nuc}}_{T(n)\oplus T(n-1)}(\mathcal{C})).$$ We also establish chromatic descent for continuous $K$-theory of dualizable homotopy fixed points and prove a categorical nuclear refinement of descent. This framework allows us to lift redshift bounds, Tate vanishing, and blueshift from spectra to dualizable stable categories. We show that the $T(n)$-completion of a rigid symmetric monoidal stable category is equivalent to the dualizable limit of module categories over a tower of type $n$ generalized Moore spectra. As applications, we prove that both nuclear solid and nuclear gaseous module categories satisfy chromatic redshift.

arXiv comment70 pages; comments welcome!