Anomalies of Dirac type operators on Euclidean space (Q2260719)

In the theory of semi-normal operators, that is, bounded linear operators \(T\) on a Hilbert space subject to the compactness condition of the self-commutator \([T^\ast,T]\), the Fredholm index can naturally be interpreted as a boundary homomorphism at the level of \(K\)-theory, on the algebra generated by \(T\), modulo the compact operators. The case of ``smooth extensions'' of operator algebras, that is, when \([T^\ast,T]\) is in a Schatten-von Neumann class, led several groups of researchers in the 1970s to refine index type invariants. A notable example is the Helton-Howe and the Carey-Pincus theory of the principal function. The article under review reconsiders these old ideas from the practical point of view of spectral analysis of Dirac operators on Euclidean space. In a companion work, \textit{A. Carey} and \textit{J. Kaad} [``Topological invariance of the homological index'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1402.0475}], sketched a general framework for studying the analog of the Fredholm index for operators \(T\) subject to the condition that \((I-T^\ast T)^n - (I-T T^\ast)^n\) is trace class. As the index is no more invariant under all compact perturbations, but rather under small perturbation on the Schatten-von Neumann scale, \(K\)-theory is replaced by cyclic homology. Prompted by the physical motivation of the article, the leading term (known as an anomaly) in asymptotic formulas after scaling \[ I-T_\lambda T_\lambda^\ast = \lambda ( \lambda + D_+ D_-)^{-1} ,\dots \] is thoroughly analysed. The article offers a lucid and self-contained approach to a class of examples in non-classical index theory.