Relative pairing in cyclic cohomology and divisor flows

We construct invariants of relative K-theory classes of multiparameter dependent pseudodifferential operators, which recover and generalize Melrose's divisor flow and its higher odd-dimensional versions of Lesch and Pflaum. These higher divisor flows are obtained by means of pairing the relative K-theory modulo the symbols with the cyclic cohomological characters of relative cycles constructed out of the regularized operator trace together with its symbolic boundary. Besides giving a clear and conceptual explanation to all the essential features of the divisor flows, this construction allows to uncover the previously unknown even-dimensional counterparts. Furthermore, it confers to the totality of these invariants a purely topological interpretation, that of implementing the classical Bott periodicity isomorphisms in a manner compatible with the suspension isomorphisms in both K-theory and in cyclic cohomology. We also give a precise formulation, in terms of a natural Clifford algebraic suspension, for the relationship between the higher divisor flows and the spectral flow.Comment: 43 pages; revision 5.22; expanded by a factor of 1.5, in particular even case adde

Connes-Chern character for manifolds with boundary and eta cochains

We express the Connes-Chern character of the Dirac operator associated to a b-metric on a manifold with boundary in terms of a retracted cocycle in relative cyclic cohomology, whose expression depends on a scaling/cut-off pa- rameter. Blowing-up the metric one recovers the pair of characteristic currents that represent the corresponding de Rham relative homology class, while the blow-down yields a relative cocycle whose expression involves higher eta cochains and their b-analogues. The corresponding pairing formulae with relative K-theory classes capture information about the boundary and allow to derive geometric consequences. As a by-product, we show that the generalized Atiyah-Patodi-Singer pairing introduced by Getzler and Wu is necessarily restricted to almost flat bundles.Comment: 98 pages, 6 figures; major revision, accepted for publication in the Memoirs of the AM