Joint torsion of several commuting operators (Q655348)

\textit{R. Carey} and \textit{J. Pincus} [Integral Equations Oper. Theory 33, No. 3, 273--304 (1999; Zbl 0951.47030)] introduced the notion of joint torsion of a pair of commuting Fredholm operators. For each pair \((A,B)\) of commuting Fredholm operators on some vector space \(E\) over a field \(\mathbb{F}\), there corresponds an invertible element \(\tau(A,B)\in\mathbb{F}^{*}\) called the joint torsion of \((A,B)\). Let \(f,g\) be two functions on the disk algebra which do not vanish on the unit circle. Then the associated Toeplitz operators \(T_{f}\) and \(T_{g}\) on the Hardy space \(H^2(\mathbb{U})\) form a pair of commuting Fredholm operators. Carey and Pincus showed that \(\tau(T_{f},T_{g})=c(f,g)\), the tame symbol of \(f\) and \(g\). In the paper under review, the author generalizes the Carey-Pincus joint torsion of a pair to a tuple of commuting operators that satisfy a Fredholm condition. More specifically, for each such tuple \(A=(A_1,\dots,A_n)\) of operators on a vector space over a field \(\mathbb{F}\), and for integers \(i, j\in\{1,\dots,n\}\), the author constructs an invertible element \(\tau_{i,j}(A)\in\mathbb{F}^{*}\) called the \textit{joint torsion transition number} in position \((i,j)\). It is then shown that the joint torsion transition numbers satisfy the cocyle property, a triviality property and a multiplicativity property. As an example, the author computes the joint torsion transition numbers of a special type of commuting tuples of Toeplitz operators on the Hardy space \(H^2(\mathbb{U}^n)\) over the unit polydisc. More specifically, let \(f\) be an invertible element in the polydisc algebra. For each \(\alpha=(\alpha_1,\dots,\alpha_n)\in\mathbb{U}^n\), put \[ T_{\alpha} = (T_{f},T_{z_1-\alpha_1},\dots, T_{z_n-\alpha_n}). \] The author shows that for \(i<j\), \ \(\tau_{i,j}(T_{\alpha})=f(\alpha)\) if \(i=1\) and \(\tau_{i,j}(T_{\alpha})=1\) if \(i\neq 1\).