Topological invariance of the homological index (Q2398720)

This work provides a major improvement of the Carey-Pincus index theory for non-Fredholm operators [\textit{R. W. Carey} and \textit{J. D. Pincus}, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 44, 149--161 (1986; Zbl 0631.47007)]. In Carey-Pincus theory, one assumes that \(TT^*-T^*T\) is trace class. In an earlier work [\textit{A. Carey} et al., Commun. Math. Phys. 335, No. 1, 445--475 (2015; Zbl 1321.47026)], the authors used, in a special case, a weaker condition, leading to an index defined by the trace of \((1-TT^*)^N -(1-T^*T)^N\). At that time, it was not clear what stability properties this proposed index had. In the present paper, it is shown that the above index can be defined in greater generality, and more importantly, that there exists an interpretation in cyclic homology and that it is homotopy invariant under a class of (even unbounded) perturbations. The paper is nicely structured, and there are abstract algebraic results on cyclic homology of algebras with two ideals that may be of independent interest to algebraists.