Finiteness Obstructions and Euler Characteristics of Categories

We introduce notions of finiteness obstruction, Euler characteristic, L2-Euler characteristic, and Möbius inversion for wide classes of categories. The finiteness obstruction of a category Γ of type (FP) is a class in the projective class group K0(RΓ); the Euler characteristic and L2-Euler characteristic are respectively its RΓ-rank and L2-rank. We also extend the second author’s K-theoretic Möbius inversion from finite categories to quasi-finite categories. Our main example is the proper orbit category, for which these invariants are established notions in the geometry and topology of classifying spaces for proper group actions. Baez-Dolan’s groupoid cardinality and Leinster’s Euler characteristic are special cases of the L2-Euler characteristic. Some of Leinster’s results on Möbius-Rota inversion are special cases of the K-theoretic Möbius inversion.