On nilpotent extensions of $\infty$-categories and the cyclotomic trace

Abstract

We do three things in this paper: (1) study the analog of localization sequences (in the sense of algebraic $K$-theory of stable $\infty$-categories) for additive $\infty$-categories, (2) define the notion of nilpotent extensions for suitable $\infty$-categories and furnish interesting examples such as categorical square-zero extensions, and (3) use (1) and (2) to extend the Dundas-Goodwillie-McCarthy theorem for stable $\infty$-categories which are not monogenically generated (such as the stable $\infty$-category of Voevodsky's motives or the stable $\infty$-category of perfect complexes on some algebraic stacks). The key input in our paper is Bondarko's notion of weight structures which provides a "ring-with-many-objects" analog of a connective $\mathbb{E}_1$-ring spectrum. As applications, we prove cdh descent results for truncating invariants of stacks extending the work of Hoyois-Krishna for homotopy $K$-theory, and establish new cases of Blanc's lattice conjecture.