A Milnor exact sequence for $E$-theory

Abstract

For separable $C^*$-algebras $A$ and $B$, the $E$-theory group $E(A,B)$ carries a natural, generally non-Hausdorff, second-countable group topology, Hausdorff exactly when the closure of zero $\overline{\{0\}} \subseteq E(A,B)$ is trivial. The nonzero elements of $\overline{\{0\}}$ are the phantom classes, invisible to every continuous Hausdorff-valued invariant. We identify $\overline{\{0\}}$ as a derived inverse limit over any shape system $(C_n)$ of $SA \otimes \mathcal{K}$, giving a natural Milnor sequence $0 \to {\varprojlim}^1 [C_n, S^2B \otimes \mathcal{K}] \to E(A,B) \to \varprojlim [C_n, SB \otimes \mathcal{K}] \to 0$ for all separable $A$ and $B$, with no UCT or nuclearity hypothesis. For nuclear $A$ it agrees with the Willett-Yu controlled-$KK$ Milnor sequence, and when $A$ satisfies the UCT, nuclear or not, its ${\varprojlim}^1$ term is the pure-extension group $\mathrm{Pext}^1_{\mathbb{Z}}(K_{*+1}(A), K_*(B))$, as in Schochet's fine-structure description of the Kasparov groups.