Whitehead torsion and the kernel of assembly

Abstract

For a topological space that is homeomorphic to a finite simplicial complex, we prove that the Bartels--Nikolaus assembly functor has a fully faithful right adjoint. Using this, we define for each such topological space $X$ a {\em Whitehead category}, whose K-theory is canonically identified with the Whitehead spectrum of $X$; and for a homotopy equivalence between two such spaces, we define an object in the Whitehead category of $X$ called the {\em torsion cosheaf} of the map, whose K-theory class recovers the classical Whitehead torsion.