Topological cyclic homology via the norm

Abstract

We describe a construction of the cyclotomic structure on topological Hochschild homology ($THH$) of a ring spectrum using the Hill-Hopkins-Ravenel multiplicative norm. Our analysis takes place entirely in the category of equivariant orthogonal spectra, avoiding use of the B\"okstedt coherence machinery. We are able to define versions of topological cyclic homology ($TC$) and TR-theory relative to a cyclotomic commutative ring spectrum $A$. We describe spectral sequences computing this relative theory $_ATR$ in terms of $TR$ over the sphere spectrum and vice versa. Furthermore, our construction permits a straightforward definition of the Adams operations on $TR$ and $TC$.