Immersions and the unbounded Kasparov product: embedding spheres into Euclidean space (Q2080298)

For a \(K\)-oriented map \(f \colon X \to Y\) between spin\(^{c}\) manifolds \(X,Y\), there is a \(KK\)-element \(f! \in KK^{\dim X + \dim Y}(C(X), C(Y))\) so-called shriek map. A one of interesting property of the shriek map is a formula \([D_{X}] = f! \; \hat{\otimes}_{C(Y)} [D_{Y}]\), where \([D_{X}]\) (resp. \([D_{Y}]\)) is a fundamental class of \(X\) (resp. \(Y\)) which is represented by the Dirac operator \(D_{X}\) on \(X\) (resp. \(D_{Y}\) on \(Y\)). The shriek map \(f!\) is constructed by an unbounded character in [\textit{A. Connes} and \textit{G. Skandalis}, Publ. Res. Inst. Math. Sci. 20, 1139--1183 (1984; Zbl 0575.58030)], so it is natural to investigate how this formula can be realized concretely in terms of unbounded \(KK\)-cycles in the sense of [\textit{S. Baaj} and \textit{P. Julg}, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I 296, 875--878 (1983; Zbl 0551.46041)]. For example, when \(f\) is a submersion and \(X\) and \(Y\) are compact, the factorization has been investigated in [\textit{J. Kaad} and \textit{W. D. van Suijlekom}, J. Noncommut. Geom. 12, No. 3, 1133--1159 (2018; Zbl 1405.19002)]. In this paper under review, the authors investigate the factorization problem for the embedding \(i \colon S^{n} \to \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\). Namely, for an unbounded operator \(\widetilde{S}\) represents \(i!\), the tensor sum \(D_{\times} = \widetilde{S} \otimes 1 + \gamma^{3} \otimes_{\nabla} D_{\mathbb{R}^{n+1}}\) represents both \(i! \otimes [D_{\mathbb{R}^{n+1}}]\) and \([D_{S^{n}}]\) (see Theorem 1).