Geometric And Topological Invariants Of Elliptic Operators

This volume contains the proceedings of the AMS-IMS-SIAM Summer Research Conference on ``Geometric and Topological Invariants of Elliptic Operators,'' held in August 1988 at Bowdoin College. Some of the themes covered at the conference and appearing in the articles are: the use of more sophisticated asymptotic methods to obtain index theorems, the study of the $\eta$ invariant and analytic torsion, and index theory on open manifolds and foliated manifolds. The current state of noncommutative differential geometry, as well as operator algebraic and $K$-theoretic methods, are also presented in several the articles. This book will be useful to researchers in index theory, operator algebras, foliations, and mathematical physics. Topologists and geometers are also likely to find useful the view the book provides of recent work in this area. In addition, because of the expository nature of several of the articles, it will be useful to graduate students interested in working in these areas.

This comprehensive yet concise book deals with nonlocal elliptic differential operators. These are operators whose coefficients involve shifts generated by diffeomorphisms of the manifold on which the operators are defined. This is the first book featuring a consistent application of methods of noncommutative geometry to the index problem in the theory of nonlocal elliptic operators. To make the book self-contained, the authors have included necessary geometric material.

Modern theory of elliptic operators, or simply elliptic theory, has been shaped by the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem created 40 years ago. Reviewing elliptic theory over a broad range, 32 leading scientists from 14 different countries present recent developments in topology; heat kernel techniques; spectral invariants and cutting and pasting; noncommutative geometry; and theoretical particle, string and membrane physics, and Hamiltonian dynamics. The first of its kind, this volume is ideally suited to graduate students and researchers interested in careful expositions of newly-evolved achievements and perspectives in elliptic theory. The contributions are based on lectures presented at a workshop acknowledging Krzysztof P Wojciechowski''s work in the theory of elliptic operators. Sample Chapter(s). Contents (42 KB). Contents: On the Mathematical Work of Krzysztof P Wojciechowski: Selected Aspects of the Mathematical Work of Krzysztof P Wojciechowski (M Lesch); Gluing Formulae of Spectral Invariants and Cauchy Data Spaces (J Park); Topological Theories: The Behavior of the Analytic Index under Nontrivial Embedding (D Bleecker); Critical Points of Polynomials in Three Complex Variables (L I Nicolaescu); Chern-Weil Forms Associated with Superconnections (S Paycha & S Scott); Heat Kernel Calculations and Surgery: Non-Laplace Type Operators on Manifolds with Boundary (I G Avramidi); Eta Invariants for Manifold with Boundary (X Dai); Heat Kernels of the Sub-Laplacian and the Laplacian on Nilpotent Lie Groups (K Furutani); Remarks on Nonlocal Trace Expansion Coefficients (G Grubb); An Anomaly Formula for L 2- Analytic Torsions on Manifolds with Boundary (X Ma & W Zhang); Conformal Anomalies via Canonical Traces (S Paycha & S Rosenberg); Noncommutative Geometry: An Analytic Approach to Spectral Flow in von Neumann Algebras (M-T Benameur et al.); Elliptic Operators on Infinite Graphs (J Dodziuk); A New Kind of Index Theorem (R G Douglas); A Note on Noncommutative Holomorphic and Harmonic Functions on the Unit Disk (S Klimek); Star Products and Central Extensions (J Mickelsson); An Elementary Proof of the Homotopy Equivalence between the Restricted General Linear Group and the Space of Fredholm Operators (T Wurzbacher); Theoretical Particle, String and Membrane Physics, and Hamiltonian Dynamics: T-Duality for Non-Free Circle Actions (U Bunke & T Schick); A New Spectral Cancellation in Quantum Gravity (G Esposito et al.); A Generalized Morse Index Theorem (C Zhu). Readership: Researchers in modern global analysis and particle physics.

Modern theory of elliptic operators, or simply elliptic theory, has been shaped by the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem created 40 years ago. Reviewing elliptic theory over a broad range, 32 leading scientists from 14 different countries present recent developments in topology; heat kernel techniques; spectral invariants and cutting and pasting; noncommutative geometry; and theoretical particle, string and membrane physics, and Hamiltonian dynamics.The first of its kind, this volume is ideally suited to graduate students and researchers interested in careful expositions of newly-evolved achievements and perspectives in elliptic theory. The contributions are based on lectures presented at a workshop acknowledging Krzysztof P Wojciechowski's work in the theory of elliptic operators.

This book aims to provide a friendly introduction to non-commutative geometry. It studies index theory from a classical differential geometry perspective up to the point where classical differential geometry methods become insufficient. It then presents non-commutative geometry as a natural continuation of classical differential geometry. It thereby aims to provide a natural link between classical differential geometry and non-commutative geometry. The book shows that the index formula is a topological statement, and ends with non-commutative topology.

This book is an introduction to several active research topics in Foliation Theory and its connections with other areas. It contains expository lectures showing the diversity of ideas and methods converging in the study of foliations. The lectures by Aziz El Kacimi Alaoui provide an introduction to Foliation Theory with emphasis on examples and transverse structures. Steven Hurder's lectures apply ideas from smooth dynamical systems to develop useful concepts in the study of foliations: limit sets and cycles for leaves, leafwise geodesic flow, transverse exponents, Pesin Theory and hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic types of foliations. The lectures by Masayuki Asaoka compute the leafwise cohomology of foliations given by actions of Lie groups, and apply it to describe deformation of those actions. In his lectures, Ken Richardson studies the properties of transverse Dirac operators for Riemannian foliations and compact Lie group actions, and explains a recently proved index formula. Besides students and researchers of Foliation Theory, this book will be interesting for mathematicians interested in the applications to foliations of subjects like Topology of Manifolds, Differential Geometry, Dynamics, Cohomology or Global Analysis.

Lecture notes from the conference held Aug. 1995 in Boulder, Colo.