Finite part of operator \(K\)-theory for groups finitely embeddable into Hilbert space and the degree of nonrigidity of manifolds (Q888889)

It is known that the elements of a finite order in a countable group \(G\) correspond to an abelian subgroup \(K_0^{\mathrm{fin}}(C^*(G))\) of the group \(K_0(C^*(G))\), where \(C^*(G)\) is the maximal group \(C^*\)-algebra of \(G\). The authors of the paper under review conjecture that the rank \(n\) of \(K_0^{fin}(C^*(G))\) is equal to the number of distinct element of finite order in \(G\) and such elements are not in the image of the Baum-Connes assembly map. The authors prove such a conjecture for all groups \(G\) which are finitely embeddable into a Hilbert space \(H\). (The latter type is a modification of the Gromov's coarse embedding of \(G\) into \(H\).) If \(G\cong\pi_1(M)\) for a manifold \(M\) of dimension \(4k-1\), then \(n\) becomes an interesting topological invariant of \(M\); in particular, it is proved that the lower bound of the so-called structure group \(S(M)\) measuring a rigidity of \(M\) and the ``size'' of the space of positive curvature metrics on \(M\) is given by the number \(n\). The paper is well motivated and clearly written what makes the text a pleasant read.