Higher Kazhdan projections for one relator groups

Abstract

We study the $K$-theory classes of higher Kazhdan projections of a discrete group under a spectral-gap assumption and recall how they are obtained, via the Baum--Connes assembly map, from equivariant Euler classes. After reviewing the case of virtually free groups, where the universal space for proper actions has a one-dimensional model, we prove the main new result: an explicit description of the $K$-theory class of the first higher Kazhdan projection for finitely generated infinite one-relator groups whose first Laplacian has a spectral gap. If moreover the one-relator group is hyperbolic, this also gives corresponding formulas for delocalised $\ell^2$-Betti numbers.