Cyclotomy and endomotives (Q974446)

The fun of mathematics is partly due to sudden and unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated objects; good mathematical texts always contain such an element, for otherwise we are at risk of doing a bookkeeping. Fortunately, noncommutative geometry has plenty of such interactions ranging from quantum physics to number theory and algebraic geometry, see e.g. the monograph [\textit{M. ~Marcolli}, Arithmetic noncommutative geometry. University Lecture Series 36. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2005; Zbl 1081.58005)]. The paper under review studies an interface between: (i) noncommutative algebra (the so-called Bost-Connes endomotives, cyclotomic towers, etc.), (ii) number theory (schemes over \({\mathbb F}_1\) -- the ``field'' with one element) and low-dimensional topology (the so-called Habiro rings and the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant of the 3-dimensional homology sphere). For (i) and (ii) it is proved that geometry over \({\mathbb F}_1\) can be expressed in terms of the Bost-Connes endomotives. For (i) and (iii) it is shown that the commutative part of the Bost-Connes algebra is related to the Habiro ring; such a ring is known to generalize the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant of the homology sphere. The natural crossed product structure of the Bost-Connes algebra can be extended to the Habiro rings and the author explores this new structure. The paper outlines several problems linking endomotives (and geometry over \({\mathbb F}_1\)) to topology of the 3-dimensional homology sphere. The text is highly recommended to researchers (and graduate students) with interests in quantum algebra, number theory and topology. A draft of the paper is available at \url{arxiv:0901.3167}.