The Atiyah-Singer index formula for subelliptic operators on contact manifolds. I. (Q974074)

[For part II, cf. ibid. 171, No. 3, 1683-1706 (2010; Zbl 1206.19005).] In the present paper the author formulates and proves an index theorem for subelliptic operators on contact manifolds based on Connes's tangent groupoid approach to the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. The index problem on contact manifolds has been studied in detail before by \textit{R. Melrose} and \textit{C. Epstein} in an unpublished preprint, see the survey of \textit{C. L. Epstein} [Lectures on indices and relative indices on contact and CR-manifolds. Woods Hole Mathematics, Ser. Knots Everything 34, World Sci. Publ., 27--93 (2004; Zbl 1065.00007)]. The present approach is different. It leads to a formula which resembles the classical Atiyah-Singer index formula. A contact manifold \(M\) of dimension \(2n+1\) is a manifold endowed with a vector bundle \(H\subset TM\) of dimension \(2n\) such that \(\theta (d\theta)^n\) is a volume form for any nowhere vanishing local 1-form \(\theta\) with \(\theta(H)=0\). Contact manifolds are locally modelled on the Heisenberg group \(\mathbb{R}^{2n+1}\). On the latter there is a particular class of differential operators, called Rockland operators, containing for example the heat operator \(\Delta + \partial_t\). A subelliptic operator on \(M\) is a differential operator whose local models are Rockland operators. Subelliptic operators are Fredholm between appropriate weighted Sobolev spaces if \(M\) is closed. In order to formulate an index theorem for these operators an appropriate notion of symbol is needed. The fibers of the bundle \(H \oplus N\) with \(N=TM/H\) are endowed with the structure of a nilpotent graded Lie algebra, where elements of \(H\) have degree 1 and elements of \(N\) degree 2. The groupoid \(T_HM\) is defined as the associated bundle of Lie groups. It plays the role of the tangent space. The space of principal symbols is the associated \(C^*\)-algebra \(C^*(T_HM)\). By associating a tangent groupoid to \(T_HM\) the author gets a map \(\mathrm{Ind}_H:K_0(C^*(T_HM)) \to \mathbb Z\). On the other hand for any subelliptic operator \(P\) there is a well-defined principal symbol class \([\sigma_H(P)]\in K_0(C^*(T_HM))\) and the index \(\mathrm{Index}(P)\). The main technical result of the paper is the equality \[ \mathrm{Index}(P)=\mathrm{Ind}_H[\sigma_H(P)], \] which is proven by adapting a strategy of \textit{N. Higson} [Contemp. Math. 148, 67--86 (1993; Zbl 0798.19004)]. Since the fibers of \(T_HM\) are nilpotent, there is an isomorphism \(\Psi:K_0(C^*(T_HM)) \to K^0(TM)\). Using the groupoid formulism in index theory the author gets \[ \mathrm{Ind}_H[\sigma_H(P)]=\int_{TM}\mathrm{Ch}(\Psi [\sigma_H(P)]) \wedge \mathrm{Td}(M), \] which together with the previous equation yields the main result of the paper. Due to the abstract nature of the map \(\Psi\), the index formula is still inexplicit. This is remedied in the follow-up to this paper [Ann. Math. 171, 1683--1706 (2010; Zbl 1206.19005)].