Geometric obstructions for Fredholm boundary conditions for manifolds with corners

Abstract: For every connected manifold with corners we use a homology theory called conormal homology, defined in terms of faces and incidences and whose cycles correspond geometrically to corner's cycles. Its Euler characteristic (over the rationals, dimension of the total even space minus the dimension of the total odd space),

c h i_{c n} := c h i_{0} - c h i_{1}

, is given by the alternated sum of the number of (open) faces of a given codimension. The main result of the present paper is that for a compact connected manifold with corners

X

given as a finite product of manifolds with corners of codimension less or equal to three we have that 1) If

X

satisfies the Fredholm Perturbation property (every elliptic pseudodifferential b-operator on

X

can be perturbed by a b-regularizing operator so it becomes Fredholm) then the even Euler corner character of

X

vanishes, i.e.

c h i_{0} (X) = 0

. 2) If the even Periodic conormal homology group vanishes, i.e.

H_{0}^{p c n} (X) = 0

, then

X

satisfies the stably homotopic Fredholm Perturbation property (i.e. every elliptic pseudodifferential b-operator on

X

satisfies the same named property up to stable homotopy among elliptic operators). 3) If

H_{0}^{p c n} (X)

is torsion free and if the even Euler corner character of

X

vanishes, i.e.

c h i_{0} (X) = 0

then

X

satisfies the stably homotopic Fredholm Perturbation property. For example for every finite product of manifolds with corners of codimension at most two the conormal homology groups are torsion free. The main theorem behind the above result is the explicit computation in terms of conormal homology of the

K -

theory groups of the algebra

m a t h c a l K_{b} (X)

of

b

-compact operators for

X

as above. Our computation unifies the only general cases covered before, for codimension zero (smooth manifolds) and for codimension 1 (smooth manifolds with boundary).

Review text

Given a compact manifold, it is well known that elliptic operators correspond to Fredholm; also the vanishing of the Fredholm index corresponds to invertibility up to perturbation by a regularizing operator. The Atiyah-Singer index theorem provides a \(K\)-theoretic viewpoint of these classical results. In the case of manifolds with boundary, the work of Atiyah, Patodi and Singer explains the vanishing of the obstruction to perturbing an elliptic operator to a (nonlocal) Fredholm one. Obtaining this result from the vanishing of an analytic index [\textit{R. B. Melrose} and \textit{P. Piazza}, J. Differ. Geom. 46, No. 1, 99--180 (1997; Zbl 0955.58020); J. Differ. Geom. 46, No. 2, 287--334 (1997; Zbl 0920.58053)], [\textit{B. Monthubert} and \textit{V. Nistor}, Compos. Math. 148, No. 2, 640--668 (2012; Zbl 1247.58016)] indicates that expicit \(K\)-theoretic computations provide a better understanding of the nature of this obstruction. Such computations become more important in the case manifolds with corners, where this obstruction does not vanish. Results regarding the understanding of this case have been given in [\textit{U. Bunke}, Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 928, 120 p. (2009; Zbl 1181.58017)] (for Dirac operators) and [\textit{V. Nazaikinskii} et al., in: \(C^*\)-algebras and elliptic theory II. Selected papers of the international conference, Bȩdlewo, Poland, January 2006. Basel: Birkhäuser. 207--226 (2008; Zbl 1205.58018); J. Math. Sci., New York 170, No. 2, 229--237 (2010; Zbl 1301.58013); translation from Sovrem. Mat., Fundam. Napravl. 34, 100--108 (2009)]. This interesting paper under review provides explicit \(K\)-theoretic computations for compact manifolds with corners which are finite products of manifolds with corners of codimension less or equal to 3. In particular, the authors introduce a homology theory which realises the spectral sequence associated with the filtration of the algebra of b-pseudodifferential operators involved. They show that (after killing the torsion), these homology groups model the \(K\)-theory. The main result of the paper is that the Euler character associated with this homology controls the Fredholm perturbation obstruction. The constructions and results given generalize results by Bunke and Nazaikinskii et al. [loc. cit.]. Moreover, the authors use groupoids to formulate the pseudodifferential calculus and the \(K\)-theory involved, as well as to provide simpler proofs of the necessary index-theoretic results.

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