On the K-theory spectrum of a ring of algebraic integers

We give an explicit description of the homotopy type of a certain localization of the algebraic K-theory spectrum associated by Quillen to the ring of integers in a number field. This description is in terms of the Iwasawa theory of the number field. If the Lichtenbaum-Quillen conjecture is true, then the localization we compute is, for practical purposes, identical to the algebraic K-theory spectrum itself, completed at some odd prime e. We also obtain various splitting theorems, conjectural calculations of the cohomology of classifying spaces of infinite general linear groups, and (nonconjectural) calculations of the l-adic topological K-theory of these classifying spaces.