Homological algebra of Novikov-Shubin invariants and Morse inequalities (Q1924202)

Let \(\mathcal A\) be a finite von Neumann algebra. Denote by \({\mathcal H}({\mathcal A})\) the category of finitely generated Hilbert \({\mathcal A}\)-modules with bounded \({\mathcal A}\)-equivariant operators as morphisms. A category \({\mathcal E}({\mathcal A})\) is constructed which contains \({\mathcal H}({\mathcal A})\) as subcategory and is abelian. Hence the homology of a chain complex in \({\mathcal H}({\mathcal A})\) defines objects in \({\mathcal E}({\mathcal A})\). Any object in \({\mathcal E}({\mathcal A})\) splits as an object in \({\mathcal H}({\mathcal A})\) called projective part and a part called torsion part. One can assign to any object in \({\mathcal H}({\mathcal A})\) a non-negative real number, its von Neumann dimension, and to any torsion part an element in \([0,\infty]\), its Novikov-Shubin invariant. The category \({\mathcal E}({\mathcal A})\) and these invariants are studied in detail, for instance homotopy invariance and duality is investigated. This construction can be applied to the cellular \(L^2\)-chain complex of the universal covering of a finite CW-complex and yields the well-known notions of \(L^2\)-Betti numbers and Novikov-Shubin invariants which were originally defined in terms of the heat kernel of the universal covering of a closed Riemannian manifold. This new approach yields a clear separation of this invariants as invariants of the projective resp. the torsion part and yields to a new invariant, the minimal number of generators. This is used to improve the Morse inequalities in terms of \(L^2\)-Betti numbers due to Novikov and Shubin. It is also shown that the Novikov-Shubin invariants depend only on the homology of the universal covering if the fundamental group is free.