Geometric $K$-homology and operator $K$-theory for Hilbert manifolds

Abstract

Poincaré duality is a classical theorem relating the homology and cohomology of closed oriented manifolds. This theorem has been extended to more general settings and to generalized (co)homology theories, including $K$-theory. In this paper, we construct an infinite-dimensional analogue of the $K$-theoretic Poincaré duality homomorphism. More precisely, for an infinite-dimensional Hilbert manifold $\mathcal{M}$, we construct a homomorphism $$K^{geo}_*(\mathcal{M})\to K_*(\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{M})),$$ where $K^{geo}_*(\mathcal{M})$ denotes the geometric $K$-homology of Baum and Douglas, and $\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{M})$ is a $C^*$-algebra associated to $\mathcal{M}$, based on a construction of Gong, Wu, and Yu. We also prove that the constructed homomorphism is non-trivial in certain cases.