\(C_{0}\) coarse geometry and scalar curvature. (Q1869058)

The author studies an alternative form of coarse geometry on proper metric spaces, which is more delicate at infinity than the standard metric coarse structure. This coarse structure on a complete manifold (or a proper metric space) is adapted to questions of existence of metrics not with uniformly positive scalar curvature but with properly positive scalar curvature. He considers an assembly map from the K-homology of a space to the K-theory of the C*-algebra associated to the new coarse structure, which factors through the coarse K-homology of the space (with the new coarse structure). If \(M\) is a complete Riemannian manifold, \(D\) the Dirac-type operator on \(M\) gives rise to a class in K-homology and its image under assembly gives a higher index in the K-theory group. The main result of this paper is a vanishing theorem for the index of the Dirac operator on an open spin manifold for which the scalar curvature \(\kappa(x)\) tends to infinity as \(x\) tends to infinity. First he gives conditions on the spectrum of \(D\) which implies that the index vanishes and secondly, in the case of the spinor Dirac operator, he gives conditions on the scalar curvature of the manifold, which imply the analytic conditions on the spectrum. The key step of the vanishing theorem is that when \(D\) has discrete spectrum with finite dimensional eigenspaces, the \(C_{0}\) higher index of \(D\) factors through the K-theory of the compact operators. Finally, the author illustrates with an example the distinction between the bounded and \(C_{0}\) coarse structures. He also gives an example where the \(C_{0}\) higher index is non-vanishing, but the bounded higher index vanishes. He uses the non-vanishing of certain \(C_{0}\) higher indices to prove a theorem about perturbations of metrics on compact spin manifolds.