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)

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.