But you asked for "projective,." so we must ask furthermore whether the homologies of this perfect complex There are flat. I believe that this is not generally true, at least if $A$ is allowedtwo things to be a dg-algebra (and I don't see an obvious reason why the non-dg case would be different).say:
- If $A$ is an ordinary algebra, then I will sketch an argument at the bottom for why this is true.
- If $A$ is allowed to be a dg-algebra, then I believe that this is not true and I'll sketch how to get a counterexample.
The case where $A$ is discrete
(I'll use the word "discrete" to indicate that something that was dg is actually concentrated in degree $0$.)
The argument is via three Lemmas:
Lemma 1: If $A$ is a discrete $R$-algebra (here $R$ is a discrete commutative ring), then $HH_\bullet^R(A)$ is a connective $R$-module. (Recall $M$ is connective if $H^i M = 0$ for $i>0$.)
Pf: Derived tensor products, over connective rings, preserve conective objects. $\square$
Lemma 2: If $A$ is smooth and proper over $R$, then there is a perfect pairing (in the sense of perfect $R$-modules)
$$ HH_\bullet^R(A) \otimes HH_\bullet^R(A^{op}) \longrightarrow R $$.
Sketch: This should follow from the general "field theory" formalism. Smooth and proper categories $R$-algebras are fully dualizable objects in a certain $(\infty,2)$-category, give rise to field theories that assign the Hochschild homology to the circle with one orientation, etc. Something similar should appear in Caldararu and Willerton's papers on the Mukai pairing. $\square$
Lemma 3: Suppose that $P$ is a perfect $R$-module, and that both $P$ and its dual $RHom_R(P, R)$ are connective. Then, $P$ is a discrete projective $R$-module.
Pf: If $R$ is a field, this is clear. Thus, it follows that $P \stackrel{L}\otimes_R k$ is discrete for every map $R \to k$ from $R$ to a field. Now this is a standard criterion for a perfect complex to be a discrete projective module.$\square$