Scissors congruence and K-theory

In this thesis we develop a version of classical scissors congruence theory from the perspective of algebraic K-theory. Classically, two polytopes in a manifold X are defined to be scissors congruent if they can be decomposed into finite sets of pairwise-congruent polytopes. We generalize this notion to an abstract problem: given a set of objects and decomposition and congruence relations between them, when are two objects in the set scissors congruent? By packaging the scissors congruence information in a Waldhausen category we construct a spectrum whose homotopy groups include information about the scissors congruence problem. We then turn our attention to generalizing constructions from the classical case to these Waldhausen categories, and find constructions for cofibers, suspensions, and products of scissors congruence problems.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mathematics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Zakharevich, Inna (Inna Ilana)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Michael J. Hopkins.

• Mathematics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73376

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/73376