A proof of the gap labeling conjecture (Q1432727)

The ``gap labeling conjecture'' is a statement about the possible gaps in the spectrum of certain Schrödinger operators. It was formulated by Bellissard and has a reduction to a purely mathematical statement about the range of the trace on a certain crossed-product \(C^*\)-algebra. The main result of the paper is the following theorem. \noindent Theorem 1.1. Let \(\Sigma\) be a Cantor set and let \(\Sigma \times \mathbb{Z}^n \rightarrow \Sigma\) be a free and minimal action of \(\mathbb{Z}^n\) on \(\Sigma\) with invariant probability measure \(\mu\). Let \(\mu: C(\Sigma) \rightarrow \mathbb{C}\) and \(\tau_\mu: C(\Sigma) \rtimes \mathbb{Z}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{C}\) be the traces induced by \(\mu\) and denote likewise the induced maps on \(K\)-theory. Then \[ \mu(K_0(C(\Sigma)))= \tau_\mu(K_0(C(\Sigma) \rtimes \mathbb{Z}^n)). \] Recall that a Cantor set is a compact, totally disconnected metric space without isolated points, and a group action is minimal if every orbit is dense. It should be noted that the above conjecture was also proved independently by Bellissard, Benedetti and Gambaudo [preprint 2001] and by \textit{M.-T. Benameur} and \textit{H. Oyono-Oyono} [C. R., Math., Acad. Sci. Paris, 334, 667--670 (2002; Zbl 0996.19006)].