Topological Hochschild homology and higher characteristics

Abstract

We show that an important classical fixed point invariant, the Reidemeister trace, arises as a topological Hochschild homology transfer. This generalizes a corresponding classical result for the Euler characteristic and is a first step in showing the Reidemeister trace is in the image of the cyclotomic trace. The main result follows from developing the relationship between shadows, topological Hochschild homology, and Morita invariance in bicategorical generality.