arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Schick.
In this note, we exhibit a method to prove the Baum-Connes conjecture (with coefficients) for extensions with finite quotients of certain groups which already satisfy the Baum-Connes conjecture. Interesting examples to which this method applies are torsion-free finite extensions of the pure braid groups, e.g. the full braid groups, or certain fundamental groups of complements of links in S^3.
We show that for each discrete group G, the rational assembly map K_*(BG) \otimes Q \to K_*(C*_{max} G) \otimes \Q is injective on classes dual to the subring generated by cohomology classes of degree at most 2 (identifying rational K-homology and homology via the Chern character). Our result implies homotopy invariance of higher signatures associated to these cohomology classes. This consequence was first established by Connes-Gromov-Moscovici and Mathai. Our approach is based on the construction of flat twisting bundles out of sequences of almost flat bundles as first described in our previous work. In contrast to the argument of Mathai, our approach is independent of (and indeed gives a new proof of) the result of Hilsum-Skandalis on the homotopy invariance of the index of the signature operator twisted with bundles of small curvature.
We give a counterexample to a conjecture of D.H. Gottlieb and prove a strengthened version of it. The conjecture says that a map from a finite CW-complex X to an aspherical CW-complex Y with non-zero Euler characteristic can have non-trivial degree (suitably defined) only if the centralizer of the image of the fundamental group of X is trivial. As a corollary we show that in the above situation all components of non-zero degree maps in the space of maps from X to Y are contractible.
Let $G$ be a word hyperbolic group in the sense of Gromov and $P$ its associated Rips complex. We prove that the fixed point set $P^H$ is contractible for every finite subgroups $H$ of $G$. This is the main ingredient for proving that $P$ is a finite model for the universal space $e.g.$ of proper actions. As a corollary we get that a hyperbolic group has only finitely many conjugacy classes of finite subgroups.
In this note, we study non-standard models of the rational numbers with countably many elements. These are ordered fields, and so it makes sense to complete them, using non-standard Cauchy sequences. The main result of this note shows that these completions are real closed, i.e. each positive number is a square, and each polynomial of odd degree has a root. This way, we give a direct proof of a consequence of a theorem of Hauschild. In a previous version of this note, not being aware of these results, we missed to mention this reference. We thank Matthias Aschenbrenner for pointing out this and related work. We also give some information about the set of real parts of the finite elements of such completions -about the more interesting results along this we have been informed by Matthias Aschenbrenner. The main idea to achieve the results relies on a way to describe real zeros of a polynomial in terms of first order logic. This is achieved by carefully using the sign changes of such a polynomial.
In a previous paper, we showed nonvaninishing of the universal index elements in the K-theory of the maximal C*-algebras of the fundamental groups of enlargeable spin manifolds. The underlying notion of enlargeability was the one from the first relevant paper of Gromov and Lawson, involving contracting maps defined on finite covers of the given manifolds. In the paper at hand, we weaken this assumption to the one in the second paper of Gromov and Lawson, where infinite covers are allowed. The new idea is the construction of a geometrically given C*-algebra with trace which encodes the information given by these infinite covers; along the way we obtain an easy proof of a relative index theorem relevant in this context.
We extend the notion of Novikov-Shubin invariant for free G-CW-complexes of finite type to spaces with arbitrary G-actions and prove some statements about their positivity. In particular we apply this to classifying spaces of discrete groups.
For a normal covering over a closed oriented topological manifold we give a proof of the L2-signature theorem with twisted coefficients, using Lipschitz structures and the Lipschitz signature operator introduced by Teleman. We also prove that the L-theory isomorphism conjecture as well as the C^*_max-version of the Baum-Connes conjecture imply the L2-signature theorem for a normal covering over a Poincar space, provided that the group of deck transformations is torsion-free. We discuss the various possible definitions of L2-signatures (using the signature operator, using the cap product of differential forms, using a cap product in cellular L2-cohomology,...) in this situation, and prove that they all coincide.
In string theory, the concept of T-duality between two principal U(1)-bundles E_1 and E_2 over the same base space B, together with cohomology classes $h_1\in H^3(E_1)$ and $h_2\in H^3(E_2)$, has been introduced. One of the main virtues of T-duality is that $h_1$-twisted K-theory of $E_1$ is isomorphic to $h_2$-twisted K-theory of $E_2$. In this paper, a new, very topological concept of T-duality is introduced. The study pairs (E,h) as above from a topological point of view and construct a classifying space of such pairs. Using this, we construct a universal dual pair to a given pair. Our construction immediately gives a number of known and new properties of the dual. In particular it implies existence of a dual of any pair (E,h), and it also describes the ambiguity upto which the dual is well defined. In order to deal with twisted K-theory, some care is needed, in particular when dealing with naturality questions, because the twisted K-theory depends on the explicit model for the twists and the twisted theory --care which is missing in some of the existing literature. We illustrate the use of T-duality by some explicit calculations of twisted K-groups.
Let G be a discrete group, and let M be a closed spin manifold of dimension m>3 with pi_1(M)=G. We assume that M admits a Riemannian metric of positive scalar curvature. We discuss how to use the L2-rho invariant and the delocalized eta invariant associated to the Dirac operator on M in order to get information about the space of metrics with positive scalar curvatur1e. In particular we prove that, if G contains torsion and M is congruent 3 mod 4 then M admits infinitely many different bordism classes of metrics with positive scalar curvature. We show that this is true even up to diffeomorphism. If G has certain special properties then we obtain more refined information about the ``size'' of the space of metric of positive scalar curvature, and these results also apply if the dimension is congruent to 1 mod 4. For example, if G contains a central element of odd order, then the moduli space of metrics of positive scalar curvature has infinitely many components, if it is not empty. Some of our invariants are the delocalized eta-invariants introduced by John Lott. These invariants are defined by certain integrals whose convergence is not clear in general, and we show, in effect, that examples exist where this integral definitely does not converge, thus answering a question of Lott. We also discuss the possible values of the rho invariants of the Dirac operator and show that there are certain global restrictions (provided the scalar curvature is positive).
The Atiyah conjecture for a discrete group G states that the $L^2$-Betti numbers of a finite CW-complex with fundamental group G are integers if G is torsion-free and are rational with denominators determined by the finite subgroups of G in general. Here we establish conditions under which the Atiyah conjecture for a group G implies the Atiyah conjecture for every finite extension of G. The most important requirement is that the cohomology $H^*(G,\mathbb{Z}/p)$ is isomorphic to the cohomology of the p-adic completion of G for every prime p. An additional assumption is necessary, e.g. that the quotients of the lower central series or of the derived series are torsion-free. We prove that these conditions are fulfilled for a class of groups which contains Artin's pure braid groups, free groups, surfaces groups, certain link groups and one-relator groups. Therefore every finite, in fact every elementary amenable extension of these groups satisfies the Atiyah conjecture. In the course of the proof we prove that if these extensions are torsion-free, then they have plenty of non-trivial torsion-free quotients which are virtually nilpotent. All of this applies in particular to Artin's full braid group, therefore answering question B6 on http://www.grouptheory.info . Our methods also apply to the Baum-Connes conjecture. This is discussed in arXiv:math/0209165 "Finite group extensions and the Baum-Connes conjecture", where the Baum-Connes conjecture is proved e.g. for the full braid group.
We show that the inertia stack of a topological stack is again a topological stack. We further observe that the inertia stack of an orbispace is again an orbispace. We show how a U(1)-banded gerbe over an orbispace gives rise to a flat line bundle over its inertia stack. Via sheaf theory over topological stacks it gives rise to the twisted delocalized cohomology of the orbispace. With these results and constructions we generalize concepts, which are well-known in the smooth framework, to the topological case. In the smooth case we show, that our sheaf-theoretic definition of twisted delocalized cohomology of orbispaces coincides with former definitions using a twisted de Rham complex.
We study the topology of T-duality for pairs of U(1)-bundles and three-dimensional integral cohomology classes over orbispaces. In particular, our results apply to U(1)-spaces with finite isotropy. We generalize the theory developed in our previous paper math.GT/0405132 from spaces to orbispaces.
We study the C*-closure A of the algebra of all operators of order and class zero in Boutet de Monvel's calculus on a compact connected manifold X with non-empty boundary. We find short exact sequences in K-theory 0->K_i(C(X))->K_i(A/K)->K_{1-i}(C_0(T*X'))->0, i= 0,1, which split, where K denotes the compact ideal and T*X' the cotangent bundle of the interior of X. Using only simple K-theoretic arguments and the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem, we show that the Fredholm index of an elliptic element in A is given as the composition of the topological index with mapping K_1(A/K)->K_0(C_0(T*X')) defined above. This relation was first established by Boutet de Monvel by different methods.
Let $M$ be a compact manifold. and $D$ a Dirac type differential operator on $M$. Let $A$ be a $C^*$-algebra. Given a bundle $W$ of $A$-modules over $M$ (with connection), the operator $D$ can be twisted with this bundle. One can then use a trace on $A$ to define numerical indices of this twisted operator. We prove an explicit formula for this index. Our result does complement the Mishchenko-Fomenko index theorem valid in the same situation. We establish generalizations of these explicit index formulas if the trace is only defined on a dense and holomorphically closed subalgebra $\mathcal{B}$. As a corollary, we prove a generalized Atiyah $L^2$-index theorem if the twisting bundle is flat. There are actually many different ways to define these numerical indices. From their construction, it is not clear at all that they coincide. An important part of the paper are complete proofs of this statement. In particular, we establish the (well known but not well documented) equality of Atiyah's definition of the $L^2$-index with a K-theoretic definition. In case $A$ is a von Neumann algebra of type 2, we put special emphasis on the calculation and interpretation of the center valued index. This completely contains all the K-theoretic information about the index of the twisted operator. Some of our calculations are done in the framework of bivariant KK-theory.
Let G be a finitely generated discrete group. In this paper we establish vanishing results for rho-invariants associated to (i) the spin-Dirac operator of a spin manifold with positive scalar curvature (ii) the signature operator of the disjoint union of a pair of homotopy equivalent oriented manifolds with fundamental group G. The invariants we consider are more precisely - the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer rho-invariant associated to a pair of finite dimensional unitary representations. - the L2-rho invariant of Cheeger-Gromov - the delocalized eta invariant of Lott for a finite conjugacy class of G. We prove that all these rho-invariants vanish if the group G is torsion-free and the Baum-Connes map for the maximal group C^*-algebra is bijective. For the delocalized invariant we only assume the validity of the Baum-Connes conjecture for the reduced C^*-algebra. In particular, the three rho-invariants associated to the signature operator are, for such groups, homotopy invariant. For the APS and the Cheeger-Gromov rho-invariants the latter result had been established by Navin Keswani. Our proof re-establishes this result and also extends it to the delocalized eta-invariant of Lott. Our method also gives some information about the eta-invariant itself (a much more saddle object than the rho-invariant).
Let M be a closed enlargeable spin manifold. We show non-triviality of the universal index obstruction in the K-theory of the maximal $C^*$-algebra of the fundamental group of M. Our proof is independent from the injectivity of the Baum-Connes assembly map for the fundamental group of M and relies on the construction of a certain infinite dimensional flat vector bundle out of a sequence of finite dimensional vector bundles on M whose curvatures tend to zero. Besides the well known fact that M does not carry a metric with positive scalar curvature, our results imply that the classifying map $M \to B π_1(M)$ sends the fundamental class of M to a nontrivial homology class in $H_n(B π_1(M) ; \Q)$. This answers a question of Burghelea (1983).
In this paper, we use the KK-theory of Kasparov to prove exactness of sequences relating the K-theory of a real C^*-algebra and of its complexification (generalizing results of Boersema). We use this to relate the real version of the Baum-Connes conjecture for a discrete group to its complex counterpart. In particular, the complex Baum-Connes assembly map is an isomorphism if and only if the real one is, thus reproving a result of Baum and Karoubi. After inverting 2, the same is true for the injectivity or surjectivity part alone.