On the integral algebraic K-theory of Morava K-theory

Abstract

We compute the cardinalities of the integral algebraic K-theory groups of connective Morava K-theory $k(n)$ in all degrees that are not congruent to $0$ or $1$ modulo $2p-2$. After base-changing the coefficients of $k(n)$ to the algebraic closure $\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p$, we determine the corresponding cardinalities in all degrees and show that the groups vanish in even degrees. Our approach uses what we call the orbit filtration on topological cyclic homology arising from the May filtration on topological Hochschild homology. Combining this with an analysis of the topological cyclic homology of formal DGAs of the form $\mathbb{F}[x_{2m}]$, where $\mathbb{F}$ is a perfect field of characteristic $p$, we prove strong cardinality results for the topological cyclic homology of $\mathbb{E}_1$-rings with homotopy $\mathbb{F}[x_{2m}]$. For Morava K-theories over finite fields, we further use the motivic filtration of Hahn--Raksit--Wilson. As an application of our methods, we compute the cardinalities of the algebraic K-theory groups of the truncation $W(\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p)/p^n$ of the $p$-typical Witt vectors of $\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p$; in particular, they vanish in even degrees.