Spectral theory of von Neumann algebra valued differential operators over non-compact manifolds (Q510253)

Let \(M\) be a complete Riemannian manifold. Let \(\mathfrak{A}\) be a von-Neumann algebra which has a finite, faithful, normal trace \(\tau\). Let \(E^\pm\) be \(\mathfrak{A}\)-Hilbert bundles of finite type over \(M\). Let \(D:C_0^\infty(E^+)\rightarrow C_0^\infty(E^-)\) be a first order partial differential operator on the space of smooth sections of compact support to the bundles \(E^\pm\). If \(V\) is a potential function, let \(H_V:=D^*D+V\) be the associated generalized Schrödinger operator. The authors give a criterion to ensure that \(H_V\) is self-adjoint. They show that if there exists a constant \(C>0\) so that \(V(x)>C\) if \(x\) is in the complement of a compact subset of \(M\), then the von-Neumann spectral counting function \(N_\tau(\lambda;H_V)\) is finite for all \(\lambda<C\). An index theorem of Callias type is then obtained. The introduction presents a nice introduction to the matter at hand. The main results are then stated in \S2. \S3 discusses \(\mathfrak{A}\)-Hilbert bundles. \S4 deals with self-adjointness of \(D^*D\) and \S5 deals with self-adjointness of \(H_V\). In \S6, the authors treat Fredholmness and in \S7, they treat the stability of the Callias-type \(\tau\) index.