Equivariant Euler characteristics and \(K\)-homology Euler classes for proper cocompact \(G\)-manifolds (Q1426932)

\textit{J. Rosenberg} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 127, 3467--3474 (1999; Zbl 0940.19003)] has made precise the sense in which there are no ``higher'' Euler characteristics. This paper extends this result to the equivariant real \(K\)-homology class defined by the Euler (or de Rham) operator on a manifold (without boundary) that is cocompact with respect to a proper action of a countable discrete group. In the non-equivariant case the Euler characteristics of the manifold's components capture all of the information carried by the Euler operator. In the equivariant case the information is captured by the image in equivariant \(K\)-homology of the universal equivariant Euler characteristic, which depends in part on the component structure of the fixed-point sets of the group action. The authors' proof relies on perturbing the Euler operator by an appropriate invariant vector field. This technique permits the identification of the Euler operator's class with a \(K\)-homology class associated with the vector field's set of zeros. The equivariant Poincaré-Hopf theorem of \textit{W. Lück} and \textit{J. Rosenberg} [in: Proc. 2001 Trieste Conf. on high-dimensional manifolds, World Scientific (to appear)] identifies this class with the image of the universal equivariant Euler characteristic. Among other topics addressed in the paper are: an example in which the Euler class is a torsion class; the relation of the Euler class to orbifold (or the more general \(L^{2}\)) Euler characteristics; the Euler class' independence of the stable equivariant Euler class; and the place of the Euler class in a diagram containing assembly maps.