Limit operators techniques on general metric measure spaces of bounded geometry (Q2183627)

The authors isolate general conditions on a metric measure space \((X,d,\mu)\) such that the Fredholm theory of band-dominated operators in terms of limit operators extends to the spaces \(L^p(X,d,\mu)\) for \(1 < p < \infty\). The classical model is \(X = \mathbb{Z}^n\) with the counting measure, see, e.g., [\textit{V. Rabinovich} et al., Limit operators and their applications in operator theory. Basel: Birkhäuser (2004; Zbl 1077.47002)] or [\textit{M. Lindner}, Infinite matrices and their finite sections. An introduction to the limit operator method. Basel: Birkhäuser (2006; Zbl 1107.47001)]. The setting is a proper metric space \((X,d)\) (that is, where closed balls are compact) having bounded geometry. This means that there is \(\varepsilon > 0\) so that, for all \(r > 0\), there is an integer \(N_r\) such that, for all \(x \in X\), the open ball \(B(x,r)\) can be covered by at most \(N_r\) open balls of radius \(\varepsilon\). It is further assumed that \((X,d)\) satisfies the property~A', which is closely related to the property~A of \textit{G.-L. Yu} [Invent. Math. 139, No. 1, 201--240 (2000; Zbl 0956.19004)]. Let \(\mu\) be a Radon measure on \(X\) and suppose that the metric \(d\) is unbounded on \(X\). The class of band operators on \((X,d,\mu)\) is defined by \(BO = \{A \in \mathcal L(L^p(X,d,\mu)): \operatorname{prop}(A) < \infty\}\), where \[ \operatorname{prop}(A) = \sup \{\operatorname{dist}(K,L): K, L \subset X, M_{1_{L}}AM_{1_{K}} \neq 0\} \] is the band width of \(A\). Here, \(1_{K}\) is the characteristic function of \(K \subset X\) and \(M_f\) is the multiplication operator \(g \mapsto fg\). The uniform closure \(BDO^p = \overline{BO}\) in \(\mathcal L(L^p(X,d,\mu))\) is the class of band-dominated operators on \(L^p(X,d,\mu)\). Suppose that the closed subspace \(M^p \subset L^p(X,d,\mu)\) is complemented by a projection \(P \in BDO^p\) and that \(M_{1_{K}}P\) and \(PM_{1_{K}}\) are compact operators on \(L^p(X,d,\mu)\) for all compact subsets \(K \subset X\). The band-dominated operators on \(M^p\) are defined as \(\mathcal{A}^p = \{A \in \mathcal{L}(M^p): AP \in BDO^p\}\). Let \(\beta X\) be the Stone-Čech compactification of \(X\) and \(\Gamma(X) = \beta X \setminus X\) be its boundary. Under technical conditions on the metric measure space, one obtains a limit operator \(A_x \in \mathcal{L}(L^p(X,d,\mu))\) with respect to a class of bijective isometric shifts on \(X\) for any \(x \in \Gamma(X)\) and any bounded \(A \in \mathcal L(L^p(X,d,\mu))\). The outcome is the following Fredholm theory. (i) Suppose that \(K \in \mathcal L(M^p)\). Then \(K\) is compact if and only if \(K \in \mathcal A^p\) and \(K_x = 0\) for all \(x \in \Gamma(X)\). (ii) The operator \(A \in\mathcal A^p\) is a Fredholm operator if and only if \(A_x\) is invertible for all \(x \in \Gamma(X)\). (iii) For \(A \in\mathcal A^p\), the essential spectrum \(\sigma_{e}(A) = \bigcup_{x \in \Gamma(X)} \sigma(A_x)\). The paper concludes with a list of examples (classical, recent and new) covered by this general approach.