Cyclic cohomology, supertraces and index theory (Q1355785)

This is an overview article on some recent developments in cyclic homology theory, in particular the proof of various excision theorems in cyclic cohomology by Cuntz and Quillen and some applications of these results. The author starts by recalling the construction of the algebra \(\Omega(A)\) of abstract differential forms on a given algebra \(A\) and various operators on this graded differential algebra, which compute the Hochschild homology and the cyclic homology of \(A\). He also discusses how to modify the constructions to deal with locally convex algebras. Next, he describes the proof of the excision theorem in periodic cyclic cohomology due to Cuntz and Quillen, and the application of this result to a proof of the Connes-Moscovici index theorem due to Nistor. Then the definition of entire cyclic cohomology of Banach algebras, the Quillen algebra and the construction of entire cyclic cocycles via supertraces on the Quillen algebra are described. Finally, the author outlines his construction of the simplicially normalized subcomplex of the entire cyclic complex, which also computes the entire cyclic cohomology. As an application of this technique, he reproves the result of Khalkhali that derivations act trivially on the entire cyclic cohomology.