The Fredholm index of locally compact band-dominated operators on \(L^p (\mathbb{R})\) (Q2464696)

Let \(L(X)\) be the Banach algebra of all bounded linear operators acting on a Banach space \(X\). For each \(\varphi\) in \(BUC\), the algebra of all bounded uniformly continuous functions on \(\mathbb{R}\), and for each \(t>0\), let \(\varphi_t(x):=\varphi(tx)\). An operator \(A\in L(L^p(\mathbb{R}))\) (\(1<p<\infty\)) is called band-dominated if \[ \lim_{t\to 0}\| A\varphi_tI-\varphi_tA\| =0 \text{ for every }\varphi\in BUC. \] Let \({\mathcal L}_p\) stand for the set of all locally compact band-dominated operators \(A\) on \(L^p(\mathbb{R})\), which means that \(\varphi A\) and \(A\varphi I\) are compact for every function \(\varphi\in BUC\) of bounded support. An operator \(A_h\in L(L^p(\mathbb{R}))\) is called a limit operator of \(A\in L(L^p(\mathbb{R}))\) with respect to a sequence \(h=\{h_n\}\) tending to \(\infty\) as \(n\to\infty\) if \[ \lim_{n\to\infty}\| (U_{-h_n}AU_{h_n}-A_h)\varphi I\| = \lim_{n\to\infty}\| \varphi(U_{-h_n}AU_{h_n}-A_h)\| =0 \] for every \(\varphi\in BUC\) with bounded support, where \(U_k\in L(L^p(\mathbb{R}))\) are given by \((U_kf)(x)=f(x-k)\), \(k\in\mathbb{Z}\). Let \(\sigma_+(A)\) and \(\sigma_-(A)\) denote the sets of all limit operators of \(A\in L(L^p(\mathbb{R}))\) with respect to sequences \(h\) tending to \(+\infty\) and \(-\infty\), respectively; and let \({\mathcal L}_p^{\$}\) be the set of all operators \(A\in{\mathcal L}_p\) possessing the property that every sequence \(h\) tending to \(\infty\) has a subsequence \(g\) for which the limit operator \(A_g\) exists. Main Theorem. Let \(A=I+K\), where \(K\in{\mathcal L}_p^{\$}\). (a) The operator \(A\) is Fredholm on \(L^p(\mathbb{R})\) if and only if all limit operators of \(A\) are invertible and the norms of their inverses are uniformly bounded. (b) If \(A\) is Fredholm, then for arbitrary operators \(B_+\in\sigma_+(A)\) and \(B_-\in\sigma_-(A)\), \[ \operatorname{ind} (\chi_+B_+\chi_+I)= \operatorname{ind} (\chi_+A\chi_+I), \quad \operatorname{ind} (\chi_-B_-\chi_-I)=\operatorname{ind} (\chi_-A\chi_-I), \] where \(\chi_\pm\) are the characteristic functions of \(\mathbb{R}_\pm\), and, consequently, \[ \operatorname{ind} A= \operatorname{ind} (\chi_+B_+\chi_+I)+ \operatorname{ind} (\chi_-B_-\chi_-I). \] This result is applied to operators of the form \(aCbI\), where \(C\) is a Fourier convolution operator with \(L^1(\mathbb{R})\)-kernel and \(a,b\) are sums of periodic functions of period \(1\) and functions slowly oscillating in the sense that \[ \lim_{t\to\pm\infty}\sup_{h\in[0,1]}| f(t)-f(t+h)| =0. \]