John Roe and Coarse Geometry

Abstract: John Roe was a much admired figure in topology and noncommutative geometry, and the creator of the C*-algebraic approach to coarse geometry. John died in 2018 at the age of 58. My aim in the first part of the lecture will be to explain in very general terms the major themes in John’s work, and illustrate them by presenting one of his best-known results, the partitioned manifold index theorem. After the break I shall describe a later result, about relative eta invariants, that has inspired an area of research that is still very active.

operator algebras

Audience: researchers in the topic

Comments: Assumed Knowledge: First part: basic familiarity with C*-algebras, plus a little topology. Second part: basic familiarity with K-theory for C*-algebras.

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UK Virtual operator algebras seminar

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