The invariants of the Clifford groups

The automorphism group of the Barnes-Wall lattice L_m in dimension 2^m (m not 3) is a subgroup of index 2 in a certain ``Clifford group'' C_m (an extraspecial group of order 2^(1+2m) extended by an orthogonal group). This group and its complex analogue CC_m have arisen in recent years in connection with the construction of orthogonal spreads, Kerdock sets, packings in Grassmannian spaces, quantum codes, Siegel modular forms and spherical designs. In this paper we give a simpler proof of Runge's 1996 result that the space of invariants for C_m of degree 2k is spanned by the complete weight enumerators of the codes obtained by tensoring binary self-dual codes of length 2k with the field GF(2^m); these are a basis if m >= k-1. We also give new constructions for L_m and C_m: let M be the Z[sqrt(2)]-lattice with Gram matrix [2, sqrt(2); sqrt(2), 2]. Then L_m is the rational part of the mth tensor power of M, and C_m is the automorphism group of this tensor power. Also, if C is a binary self-dual code not generated by vectors of weight 2, then C_m is precisely the automorphism group of the complete weight enumerator of the tensor product of C and GF(2^m). There are analogues of all these results for the complex group CC_m, with ``doubly-even self-dual code'' instead of ``self-dual code''.Comment: Latex, 24 pages. Many small improvement

Invariants for E_0-semigroups on II_1 factors

We introduce four new cocycle conjugacy invariants for E_0-semigroups on II_1 factors: a coupling index, a dimension for the gauge group, a super product system and a C*-semiflow. Using noncommutative It\^o integrals we show that the dimension of the gauge group can be computed from the structure of the additive cocycles. We do this for the Clifford flows and even Clifford flows on the hyperfinite II_1 factor, and for the free flows on the free group factor $L(F_\infty)$. In all cases the index is 0, which implies they have trivial gauge groups. We compute the super product systems for these families and, using this, we show they have trivial coupling index. Finally, using the C*-semiflow and the boundary representation of Powers and Alevras, we show that the families of Clifford flows and even Clifford flows contain infinitely many mutually non-cocycle-conjugate E_0-semigroups.Comment: 51 page

The Arason invariant of orthogonal involutions of degree 12 and 8, and quaternionic subgroups of the Brauer group

Using the Rost invariant for torsors under Spin groups one may define an analogue of the Arason invariant for certain hermitian forms and orthogonal involutions. We calculate this invariant explicitly in various cases, and use it to associate to every orthogonal involution with trivial discriminant and trivial Clifford invariant over a central simple algebra of even co-index a cohomology class $f_3$ of degree 3 with $\mu_2$ coefficients. This invariant $f_3$ is the double of any representative of the Arason invariant; it vanishes when the algebra has degree at most 10, and also when there is a quadratic extension of the center that simultaneously splits the algebra and makes the involution hyperbolic. The paper provides a detailed study of both invariants, with particular attention to the degree 12 case, and to the relation with the existence of a quadratic splitting field.Comment: A mistake pointed out by A. Sivatski in Section 5.3 has been corrected in the new version of this preprin

Eta invariants and the hypoelliptic Laplacian

The purpose of this paper is to give a new proof of results of Moscovici and Stanton on the orbital integrals associated with eta invariants on compact locally symmetric spaces. Moscovici and Stanton used methods of harmonic analysis on reductive groups. Here, we combine our approach to orbital integrals using the hypoelliptic Laplacian, with the introduction of a rotation on certain Clifford algebras. Probabilistic methods play an important role in establishing key estimates. In particular, we construct the proper It{\^o} calculus associated with certain hypoelliptic diffusions

A noncommutative framework for topological insulators

We study topological insulators, regarded as physical systems giving rise to topological invariants determined by symmetries both linear and anti-linear. Our perspective is that of noncommutative index theory of operator algebras. In particular we formulate the index problems using Kasparov theory, both complex and real. We show that the periodic table of topological insulators and superconductors can be realised as a real or complex index pairing of a Kasparov module capturing internal symmetries of the Hamiltonian with a spectral triple encoding the geometry of the sample's (possibly noncommutative) Brillouin zone.Comment: 32 pages, final versio