Witt Vectors, Polynomial Maps, and Real Topological Hochschild Homology

Abstract

We show that various flavors of Witt vectors are functorial with respect to multiplicative polynomial laws of finite degree. We then deduce that the $p$-typical Witt vectors are functorial in multiplicative polynomial maps of degree at most $p-1$. This extra functoriality allows us to extend the $p$-typical Witt vectors functor from commutative rings to $\mathbb{Z}/2$-Tambara functors, for odd primes $p$. We use these Witt vectors for Tambara functors to describe the components of the dihedral fixed-points of the real topological Hochschild homology spectrum at odd primes.