Lectures on cyclic homology. Notes by R. Sujatha (Q2368021)

This book is based on lectures delivered at the Tata Institute in 1990. From the author's preface: ``In chapter 1, we survey the part of the theory of exact couples and spectral sequences needed for the Connes exact couple, and in chapter 2 we study the question of abelianization of algebraic objects and how it relates to Hochschild homology. In the second part, chapters 3, 4, and 5, we consider three different definitions of cyclic homology. In chapter 3, cyclic homology is defined by the standard double complex made from the standard Hochschild complex. The first result is that an algebra \(A\) and any algebra Morita equivalent to \(A\), for example the matrix algebra \(M_ n(A)\), have isomorphic cyclic homology. In chapter 4, cyclic homology is defined by cyclic covariants of the standard Hochschild complex in the case of a field of characteristic zero. The main result is a theorem discovered independently by Tsygan (1983) and Loday-Quillen (1984) calculating the primitive elements in the Lie algebra homology of the infinite Lie algebra \(\text{gl}(A)\) in terms of the cyclic homology of \(A\). In chapter 5, cyclic homology is defined in terms of mixed complexes and the Connes' \(B\) operator. This is a way, due to Connes, of simplifying the standard double complex, and it is particularly useful for the incorporation of the normalized standard Hochschild into the calculation of cyclic homology. The third part, chapters 6 and 7, is devoted to relating cyclic and Hochschild homology to differential forms and showing how \(K\)-theory classes have a Chern character in cyclic homology over a field of characteristic zero. There are two notions of differential forms depending on the commutativity properties of the algebra. In chapter 6, we study the classical Kähler differential forms for a commutative algebra, outline the proof of the classical Hochschild-Kostant-Rosenberg theorem relating differential forms and Hochschild homology, and relate cyclic homology to deRham cohomology. In chapter 7 we study non- commutative differential forms for algebras and indicate how they can be used to define the Chern character of a \(K\)-theory class, that is, a class of an idempotent element in \(M_ n(A)\), using differential forms in cyclic homology. In this way, cyclic homology becomes the natural home for characteristic classes of elements of \(K\)-theory for general algebras over a field of characteristic zero''.