Equivariant and fractional index of projective elliptic operators (Q2481516)

Let \(\mathcal{A}\) be an Azumaya bundle of rank \(N\) over a compact oriented manifold \(X\) and \(\mathcal{P}\) denote the associated principal \(PU(N)\)-bundle of trivializations of \(\mathcal{A}\). Let \(\mathbb{E}=(E^+,E^-)\) denote a pair of projective vector bundles associated to \(\mathcal{A}\). The principal symbol \(\sigma(D)\) of an elliptic projective psedodifferential operator \(D\) defines an element \([\tau^*(\mathbb{E}),\sigma(D)]\in K^0(T^*X, \tau^*\mathcal{A})\), where \(\tau : T^*X\to X\) is the projection. The fractional analytic index of \(D\) gives a homomorphism \(\text{ind}_a : K^0(T^*X,\tau^*\mathcal{A})\to\mathbb{Q}\). Let \(\widehat{\mathbb{E}}=(\widehat{E^+},\widehat{E^-})\) be the projective vector bundle associated to \(\mathbb{E}\) over \(\mathcal{P}\) with an \(SU(N)\)-action. The principal symbol \(\sigma(A)\) of a transversally elliptic \(SU(N)\)-equivariant pseudodifferential operator \(A\) defines an element \([\tau^*(\widehat{\mathbb{E}}),\sigma(A)]\in K^0_{SU(N)}(T^*_{SU(N)}X, \tau^*\mathcal{P})\). The \(SU(N)\)-equivariant index of \(A\) is a homomorphism \(\text{ind}_{SU(N)} : K^0_{SU(N)}(T^*_{SU(N)}\mathcal{P})\to C^{-\infty}(SU(N))\). In this paper, the authors give rise to a relation between the fractional index for a projective elliptic operator associated to an Azumaya bundle \(\text{ind}_a\) with the equivariant index for an associated transversally elliptic operator.