EXC 2044 - B2: Topology

Basic data for this project

Description

We will analyse geometric structures from a topological point of view. In particular, we will study manifolds, their diffeomorphisms and embeddings, and positive scalar curvature metrics on them. Via surgery theory and index theory many of the resulting questions are related to topological K-theory of group C*-algebras and to algebraic K-theory and L-theory of group rings. Index theory provides a map from the space of positive scalar curvature metrics to the K-theory of the reduced C*-algebra of the fundamental group. We will develop new tools such as parameterised coarse index theory and combine them with cobordism categories and parameterised surgery theory to study this map. In particular, we aim at rationally realising all K-theory classes by families of positive scalar curvature metrics. Important topics and tools are the isomorphism conjectures of Farrell-Jones and Baum-Connes about the structure of the K-groups that appear. We will extend the scope of these conjectures as well as the available techniques, for example from geometric group theory and controlled topology. We are interested in the K-theory of Hecke algebras of reductive p-adic Lie groups and in the topological K-theory of rapid decay completions of complex group rings. Via dimension conditions and index theory techniques we will exploit connections to operator algebras and coarse geometry. Via assembly maps in algebraic K- and L-theory we will develop index-theoretic tools to understand tangential structures of manifolds. We will use these tools to analyse the smooth structure space of manifolds and study diffeomorphism groups. Configuration categories will be used to study spaces of embeddings of manifolds.