Rough index theory on spaces of polynomial growth and contractibility

We will show that for a polynomially contractible manifold of bounded geometry and of polynomial volume growth every coarse and rough cohomology class pairs continuously with the K-theory of the uniform Roe algebra. As an application we will discuss non-vanishing of rough index classes of Dirac operators over such manifolds, and we will furthermore get higher-codimensional index obstructions to metrics of positive scalar curvature on closed manifolds with virtually nilpotent fundamental groups. We will give a computation of the homology of (a dense, smooth subalgebra of) the uniform Roe algebra of manifolds of polynomial volume growth.Comment: v4: final version, to appear in J. Noncommut. Geom. v3: added a computation of the homology of (a smooth subalgebra of) the uniform Roe algebra. v2: added as corollaries to the main theorem the multi-partitioned manifold index theorem and the higher-codimensional index obstructions against psc-metrics, added a proof of the strong Novikov conjecture for virtually nilpotent groups, changed the titl

Homotopy theory with bornological coarse spaces

We propose an axiomatic characterization of coarse homology theories defined on the category of bornological coarse spaces. We construct a category of motivic coarse spectra. Our focus is the classification of coarse homology theories and the construction of examples. We show that if a transformation between coarse homology theories induces an equivalence on all discrete bornological coarse spaces, then it is an equivalence on bornological coarse spaces of finite asymptotic dimension. The example of coarse K-homology will be discussed in detail.Comment: 220 pages (complete revision

Isospectral Alexandrov Spaces

We construct the first non-trivial examples of compact non-isometric Alexandrov spaces which are isospectral with respect to the Laplacian and not isometric to Riemannian orbifolds. This construction generalizes independent earlier results by the authors based on Schueth's version of the torus method.Comment: 15 pages, no figures; minor clarification

Coarse cohomology theories

We propose the notion of a coarse cohomology theory and study the examples of coarse ordinary cohomology, coarse stable cohomotopy and coarse cohomology theories obtained by dualizing coarse homology theories. Our investigations of coarse stable cohomotopy lead to a solution of J. R. Klein's conjecture that the dualizing spectrum of a group is a coarse invariant. We further investigate coarse cohomological $K$-theory functors and explain why (an adaption of) the functor of Emerson--Meyer does not seem to fit into our setting.Comment: 55 page