An involution on the K-theory of bimonoidal categories with anti-involution

Abstract

We construct a combinatorially defined involution on the algebraic $K$-theory of the ring spectrum associated to a bimonoidal category with anti-involution. Particular examples of such are braided bimonoidal categories. We investigate examples such as algebraic K-theory of connective complex and real topological K-theory and Waldhausen's K-theory of spaces of the form BBG, for abelian groups G. We show that the involution agrees with the classical one for a bimonoidal category associated to a ring and prove that it is not trivial in the above mentioned examples.