The index of Dirac operators on incomplete edge spaces (Q318940)

This paper is a contribution to the index theory of elliptic operators on singular spaces, as that theory has developed from \textit{J. Cheeger} [J. Differ. Geom. 18, 575--657 (1983; Zbl. 0529.58034)]. The authors study spin Dirac operators on incomplete edge spaces. Such a space is a stratified space \(X\) with a single singular stratum \(Y\). \(X\) can be blown up to give a manifold with boundary\(M\) whose boundary \(\partial M\) is a fiber bundle over \(Y\) with typical fiber \(Z\). \(M\) is given an incomplete edge metric, in which the \(Z\) directions collapse. The Dirac operator lives on the interior of \(M\). It defines a family \(D_Z\) of operators on the fibers \(Z\). The authors show that a ``geometric Witt condition,'' which bounds the spectrum of \(D_Z\) away from zero, makes the Dirac operator essentially self-adjoint and Fredholm. In the even-dimensional case, the authors establish an index formula for the Dirac operator from even spinors to odd spinors. The derivation of the index formula involves a limit of Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index problems on manifolds with boundary \(M_{\epsilon}\) that are complements of \(\epsilon\)-neighborhoods of \(Y\). Handling Atiyah-Patodi-Singer boundary conditions that vary with \(\epsilon\) is one of the technical achievements of the paper.