The local index formula in semifinite von Neumann algebras. I: Spectral flow (Q2496242)

The main result obtained by the authors in this excellent paper is the odd local index theorem for semifinite odd finitely summable smooth spectral triples \((A, H, D)\), where \(H\) is a Hilbert space, \(A\) is a \(\ast\)-subalgebra of a semifinite von Neumann algebra \(N\) acting on \(H\), and \(D\) is a densely defined unbounded self-adjoint operator on \(H\) affiliated to \(N\) such that \([D, a]\) for \(a\in A\) is densely defined and extends to a bounded operator, and \((\lambda - D)^{-1}\) for \(\lambda \not\in \mathbb R\) is compact with respect to a faithful semifinite trace \(\tau\) on \(N\). This is a sort of generalization of the odd local index theorem of \textit{A. Connes} and \textit{H. Moscovici} [Geom. Funct. Anal. 5, 174--243 (1995; Zbl 0960.46048)] but its starting point is the spectral flow formula of \textit{A. Carey} and \textit{J. Phillips} [K-Theory 31, 135--194 (2004; Zbl 1051.19004)]. One of the assumptions that the present authors impose for their main result is that the spectral dimension \(p\) of \((A, H, D)\) is greater than or equal to \(1\), where \(p\) is defined to be the infimum of \(k\in \mathbb R\) such that \(\tau ((1 + D^2)^{-k/2} ) <\infty\). The other one is that \((A, H, D)\) has isolated spectral dimension, i.e., for an element \(b \in N\) of the form \(a_0[D, a_1]^{(k_1)} \cdots [D, a_m]^{(k_m)} (1+D^2)^{-m/2- |k|}\) with \(T^{(n)} \equiv [D^2, [D^2, [\cdots, [D^2, T] \cdots ]]]\) (\(n\)-iterated), \(|k|=k_1 + \cdots + k_m\) and \(a_j\in A\) (\(0 \leq j \leq m)\), the zeta functions \(\zeta_b(z-(1-p)/2) \equiv \tau (b (1+D^2)^{-z + (1-p)/2})\) have analytic continuation to a deleted neighbourhood of \(z=(1-p)/2\). The main result says that, under the first assumption, the spectral flow \(sf (D, u^* Du)\) for \(D\) and a unitary \(u\in A\) (giving a paring between the class \([u]\in K_1(A)\) and the K-homology class \([(A, H, D)]\)) is the residue of the odd sum of the resolvent cocycles (that are double cocycles for \(A\) modulo holomorphic functions) of the Chern characters of \(u\), and the spectral flow is also computed by the residue of the odd sum of sums of the zeta functions, and if \((A, H, D)\) has isolated spectral dimension, then the spectral flow is the sum of the residue cocycles of the Chern characters of \(u\), where the residue cocycles (that are double cocycles for \(A\)) are defined by the residues of the resolvent cocycles. Its corollary says that if \(1 \leq p <2\), then the assumption of isolated spectrum dimension is unnecessary. But it seems to be nontrivial to know what values those residues take. The whole of this paper is organized by a good introduction and nice explanations (beyond this review) for the novel aspects of their approach, and some basic definitions to be used, and the statement of the main result and the outline of its proof, and the parts for proving the main result, which consist of sections entitled: Norm and trace estimates, The pseudodifferential calculus, The resolvent cocycle, and The residue cocycle. [For Part II, see ibid., 517--554 (2006; Zbl 1101.46045)].