Dualizable Additive Categories

Abstract

We develop a comprehensive theory of dualizable additive categories. We provide several equivalent characterizations, notably identifying them as separated Grothendieck prestable categories satisfying the $\mathrm{AB4}^*$ and $\mathrm{AB6}$ axioms. We establish a connection to almost mathematics by demonstrating that they arise precisely as the categories of connective almost modules over connective $\mathbb{E}_1$-rings. Furthermore, we prove that dualizable additive categories are generated by flat objects, and that the passage to flat objects yields an equivalence between dualizable additive categories and compactly assembled additive categories. As a primary application within analytic geometry, we characterize the category $\mathrm{Nuc}(R)_{\geq 0}$ of connective nuclear modules (in the sense of Clausen--Scholze) over an adic $\mathbb{E}_\infty$-ring $R$ via a universal property, identifying it as the additive rigidification of the category of connective complete $R$-modules. Finally, we construct the universal finitary stable localizing invariant for dualizable additive categories, the presentable stable category $\mathcal{M}\mathrm{ot}_{\mathrm{pst}}$ of prestable motives, and demonstrate that its unit corepresents nonconnective algebraic $K$-theory. We prove that the motives of small additive categories and those of dualizable additive categories generate the same presentable stable subcategory.