Integrality of L^2-Betti numbers

DOI10.1007/PL00004421MaRDI QIDQ1581826zbMATH OpenWikidataFDO

Authors Thomas Schick

Publication date 29 August 2001

Published in Mathematische Annalen (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0001101

zbMATH Keywords

\(L^2\)-Betti numberAtiyah conjectureHNN extension

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Group rings (16S34) General theory of von Neumann algebras (46L10) Homology with local coefficients, equivariant cohomology (55N25)

Abstract: The Atiyah conjecture predicts that the L2-Betti numbers of a finite CW-complex with torsion-free fundamental group are integers. We show that the Atiyah conjecture holds (with an additional technical condition) for direct and inverse limits of directed systems of groups for which it is true. As a corollary it holds for residually torsion-free solvable groups, e.g. for pure braid groups or for positive 1-relator groups with torsion free abelianization. Putting everything together we establish a new class of groups for which the Atiyah conjecture holds, which contains all free groups and in particular is closed under taking subgroups, direct sums, free products, extensions with elementary amenable quotient, and under direct and inverse limits of directed systems. This is a corrected version of an older paper with the same title. The proof of Proposition 2.1 of the earlier version contains a gap, as was pointed out to me by Pere Ara. This gap could not be fixed. Consequently, in this new version everything based on this result had to be removed. Please take the errata to "L2-determinant class and approximation of L2-Betti numbers" into account, which are added, rectifying some unproved statements about "amenable extension". As a consequence, throughout, amenable extensions should be extensions with normal subgroups.

Review text

The Atiyah conjecture asserts that if \(G\) is a finitely presentable torsion free group and \(X\) is a finite complex with \(\pi_1(X)\cong G\) the \(L^2\)-Betti numbers \(\beta_i^{(2)}(X)\) are integers. Generalizations allow (limited) torsion in \(G\) and predict the \(L^2\)-Betti numbers are rational, with bounded denominators. The main result of this paper is that the set of groups satisfying the Atiyah conjecture with denominator \(d\) is closed under certain HNN extensions. (In forthcoming work with W. Dicks the author has used the main technical result of this paper to establish closure under arbitrary HNN extensions). Editor's remark: In the meantime, we have been informed by the author that he discovered a gap in one of the proofs in the paper. An erratum is in preparation.

Recommendations

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Cited in

(21)

• Erratum: Math. Ann. 317, 727--750 (2000)
• The Atiyah conjecture and \(L^2\)-cohomology computations
• Hyperlinearity, essentially free actions and L^2-invariants. The sofic property
• The trace on the \(K\)-theory of group \(C^*\)-algebras
• Approximating the group algebra of the lamplighter by infinite matrix products
• The base change in the Atiyah and the Lück approximation conjectures
• The strong Atiyah conjecture for virtually cocompact special groups
• Irrational \(l^2\) invariants arising from the lamplighter group
• Some remarks on the entropy for algebraic actions of amenable groups
• Traces on group \(C^\ast\)-algebras, sofic groups and Lück's conjecture
• Finite group extensions and the Atiyah conjecture
• ON THE DEFINITION OF L²-BETTI NUMBERS OF EQUIVALENCE RELATIONS
• The strong Atiyah conjecture for right-angled Artin and Coxeter groups.
• Hodge theory on metric spaces. Appendix by Anthony W. Baker
• Approximating L²‐invariants and the Atiyah conjecture
• A note on the vanishing of the 2nd $L^2$-Betti number
• On the center-valued Atiyah conjecture for \(L^2\)-Betti numbers
• Freely independent random variables with non-atomic distributions
• Spectral and combinatorial aspects of Cayley-crystals
• \(L^2\)-Betti numbers arising from the lamplighter group
• \(L^{2}\)-Betti numbers of infinite configuration spaces

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