Enlargeability and index theory: Infinite covers

Abstract

In a previous paper, we showed nonvaninishing of the universal index elements in the K-theory of the maximal C*-algebras of the fundamental groups of enlargeable spin manifolds. The underlying notion of enlargeability was the one from the first relevant paper of Gromov and Lawson, involving contracting maps defined on finite covers of the given manifolds. In the paper at hand, we weaken this assumption to the one in the second paper of Gromov and Lawson, where infinite covers are allowed. The new idea is the construction of a geometrically given C*-algebra with trace which encodes the information given by these infinite covers; along the way we obtain an easy proof of a relative index theorem relevant in this context.