Polynomially weighted \(\ell^p\)-completions and group homology (Q2181190)

Let \(G\) be a finitely generated group, equipped with a canonical length function. The group homology of \(G\) has variants where the cycles are bounded in suitable norms or topologies. This article compares different homology groups of this type, defined by \(\ell^p\)-norms weighted by polynomials in the length function. Roughly speaking, this means that the cycles have rapid decay in the \(\ell^p\)-sense. The main result shows that these homology groups are isomorphic for all \(p\) in the open interval \(1<p<\infty\), provided the group \(G\) has polynomial or exponential growth. If \(G\) has polynomial growth, then the resulting \(\ell^p\)-Schwartz algebras are equal for all \(p\), even including \(1\) and \(\infty\), and this immediately explains the result. If \(G\) has exponential growth, then the \(\ell^p\)-Schwartz algebras are no longer the same. Instead, it is shown that the chain complexes that compute the rapid decay, \(\ell^p\)-versions of group homology are chain homotopy equivalent. The chain homotopy equivalence between the complexes for different \(p\in (1,\infty)\) is constructed using diffusion in the group. The estimates showing that this constructionl improves \(\ell^p\)- to \(\ell^q\)-estimates for suitable \(p<q\) only work for groups of exponential growth and \(1<p<q<\infty\). If the result above would remain true for \(p\in [1,\infty)\), this would allow to prove the strong Novikov conjecture for \(G\). This argument, however, usually seems to fail. Namely, it is shown that the polynomially weighted \(\ell^p\)-homologies for \(p=1\) and \(p>1\) are quite different for the free group in two generators.