A cobordism model for Waldhausen $K$-theory

Abstract

We study a categorical construction called the cobordism category, which associates to each Waldhausen category a simplicial category of cospans. We prove that this construction is homotopy equivalent to Waldhausen's $S_{\bullet}$-construction and therefore it defines a model for Waldhausen $K$-theory. As an example, we discuss this model for $A$-theory and show that the cobordism category of homotopy finite spaces has the homotopy type of Waldhausen's $A(*)$. We also review the canonical map from the cobordism category of manifolds to $A$-theory from this viewpoint.