HK and GL

Abstract

We study the HK conjecture and the gap-labelling problem for transformation groupoids associated with free actions of poly-$\Z$ groups on Cantor sets. The main tool is a comparison of the long exact sequences in groupoid homology and cohomology with the Pimsner--Voiculescu exact sequence for crossed products by $\Z$. In addition to the canonical homology comparison maps $\mu_0$ and $\mu_1$, we introduce cohomology comparison maps associated with suitable $K$-theory classes of the acting group. Together with Poincar\'e duality, these maps detect the higher homology terms occurring in the HK conjecture. We apply this method to free actions of poly-$\Z$ groups of small Hirsch length. For actions of $\Z$, $\Z^2$, and the Klein bottle group, we recover HK and gap-labelling. For several classes of groups of Hirsch length three and four, we either prove HK or obtain explicit exact sequences describing the $K$-groups in terms of groupoid homology and cohomology. For gap-labelling, we combine the de la Harpe--Skandalis determinant, the trace formula for the Pimsner--Voiculescu boundary map, and transposition decompositions in topological full groups. This gives gap-labelling up to a factor of two for all free actions of poly-$\Z$ groups of Hirsch length three and for certain groups of Hirsch length four, including $\Z^4$. We also recover gap-labelling for $\Z^3$-actions and prove gap-labelling up to a factor of two for $\Z^5$-actions by using cohomology comparison maps for mapping tori.