The strong Novikov conjecture for low degree cohomology (Q934658)

The strong Novikov conjecture is that the Baum-Connes assembly map from \(K\)-theory of the classifying space of a discrete group \(\Gamma\) to \(K\)-theory of the full \(C^*\)-algebra of \(\Gamma\) is injective after tensoring with the rational numbers \(\mathbb Q\). It is shown in this paper that the map is \(\mathbb Q\)-injective on a certain class that is dual to the subring generated by homology classes of degree at most \(2\) with respect to the Chern character. Its proof is the main body of the paper. As a corollary, a result on homotopy invariance of higher signatures is obtained. This consequence has been obtained by \textit{A. Connes, M. Gromov} and \textit{H. Moscovici} [Geom. Funct. Anal. 3, No.~1, 1--78 (1993; Zbl 0789.58069)] and \textit{V. Mathai} [Geom. Dedicata 99, 1--15 (2003; Zbl 1029.19006)] basing on a theorem of Hilsum-Skandalis. A new and independent proof for their theorem is also given.