The homotopy classification of proper Fredholm maps of index one

Abstract

In a previous paper we classified the homotopy classes of proper Fredholm maps from an infinite dimensional Hilbert manifold to its model space in terms of a suitable version of framed cobordism. We explicitly computed these homotopy classes for non-positive index. In this paper we compute the homotopy classes of proper Fredholm maps of index one from a simply connected Hilbert manifold to its model space. This classification uses a new numerical invariant for proper Fredholm maps of index one.