Analytic Pontryagin duality (Q2331503)

This paper describes a geometric realisation of \(K^0(X,\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})\) and an index pairing \( K^0(X,\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}) \times K_0(X) \rightarrow \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z} \). The pairing is an even analogue of the odd \(\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}\) index pairing explained by Lott [\textit{J. Lott}, Commun. Anal. Geom. 2, No. 2, 279--311 (1994; Zbl 0840.58044)], which realises \(K^1(X,\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})\) following Karoubi [\textit{M. Karoubi}, {Astérisque} 149, (1987; Zbl 0648.18008)] and involves the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer eta-invariant [\textit{M. F. Atiyah} et al., Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 79, 71--99 (1976; Zbl 0325.58015)]. After the introduction in Section 1, Section 2 examines a pairing \(H^2(X,\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}) \times H_2(X) \rightarrow \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}\) that can be considered as a special case of the main result. This pairing is described using a modified eta-invariant whose definition involves the index of a projective Dirac operator [\textit{V. Mathai} et al., Geom. Topol. 9, 341--373 (2005; Zbl 1083.58021)]. Section 3 discusses a pairing \(H^1(X,\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}) \times H_1(X) \rightarrow \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}\) that is a special case of Lott's pairing. Section 4 realises \(K^0(X,\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})\) using triples \((g,(d,g^{-1} d g), \mu)\), where \(g\) is an element of \(K^1(X)\), \((d,g^{-1} d g)\) is a pair of flat connections and \(\mu\) is a differential form related to \(g\) and \(d\) by an exactness condition involving the odd Chern Character [\S 1.8, \textit{W. Zhang}, Lectures on Chern-Weil theory and Witten deformations. Singapore: World Scientific (2001; Zbl 0993.58014)]. Section 5 states the main theorem. The pairing \( K^0(X,\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}) \times K_0(X) \rightarrow \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z} \) in this theorem consists of an eta-type-invariant that appears in the Dai-Zhang Toeplitz index theorem for odd-dimensional manifolds with boundary [\textit{X. Dai} and \textit{W. Zhang}, J. Funct. Anal. 238, No. 1, 1--26 (2006; Zbl 1114.58011)] and a topological term involving \(\mu\). Section 6 proves that the pairing in the main theorem is well-defined and non-degenerate.