La construction fondamentale de V. Jones et la périodicité des algèbres de Clifford. (The fundamental construction of V. Jones and the periodicity of Clifford algebras) (Q917659): Difference between revisions

Let \(N\subset M\) be an extension of rings with unit. Left multiplication defines an endomorphism of M viewed as right N-module. So after identification one has \(M\subset End_ N(M)\). Repeating this procedure one obtains a tower of ring extensions: \(N\subset M\subset M_ 2\subset M_ 3..\). V. Jones introduced this sequence among others for the study of von Neumann algebras. The index of N in M is defined to be: \[ [M:N]=\limsup_{k\to \infty} rg(M_ k/N)^{1/k} \] where \(rg(M_ k/M_ 0)\) is the rang of \(M_ k\) as N module. In the paper the method of Jones is used to study Clifford algebras. Let \(<.,.>: V\times V\to K\) be a nondegenerate bilinear form, W an hyperplane of V such that \(<.,.>_{| W}\) is nondegenerate. Then some classical results concerning the associated Clifford algebras, Cliff(V), Cliff(W), are obtained in an easy way from the construction of Jones. It is also shown that the index \([Cliff(V):Cliff(W)]=2\). This follows from the following fact: Let \(M_ 0=N\subset M_ 1=M\subset M_ 2\subset..\). be a tower of ring extensions obtained by Jones' construction. And suppose \(M_ k\) is free of rang \(\ell\) over \(M_{k-1}\) for some fixed \(\ell\), then \([M:N]=\ell.\) The condition on the rang of the \(M_ k's\) is satisfied if N, M are algebras over a field K for which there exists a trace map: Tr: End\({}_ N(M)\to K\). Appart from the Clifford algebra case where such a trace map exists the index of group algebras can also be calculated in a similar way.