A concise introduction to the techniques used to prove the Baum-Connes conjecture. The Baum-Connes conjecture predicts that the K-homology of the reduced C^*-algebra of a group can be computed as the equivariant K-homology of the classifying space for proper actions. The approach is expository, but it contains proofs of many basic results on topological K-homology and the K-theory of C^*-algebras. It features a detailed introduction to Bredon homology for infinite groups, with applications to K-homology. It also contains a detailed discussion of naturality questions concerning the assembly map, a topic not well documented in the literature. The book is aimed at advanced graduate students and researchers in the area, leading to current research problems.

The Baum-Connes conjecture is part of A. Connes' non-commutative geometry programme. It can be viewed as a conjectural generalisation of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, to the equivariant setting (the ambient manifold is not compact, but some compactness is restored by means of a proper, co-compact action of a group "gamma"). Like the Atiyah-Singer theorem, the Baum-Connes conjecture states that a purely topological object coincides with a purely analytical one. For a given group "gamma", the topological object is the equivariant K-homology of the classifying space for proper actions of "gamma", while the analytical object is the K-theory of the C*-algebra associated with "gamma" in its regular representation. The Baum-Connes conjecture implies several other classical conjectures, ranging from differential topology to pure algebra. It has also strong connections with geometric group theory, as the proof of the conjecture for a given group "gamma" usually depends heavily on geometric properties of "gamma". This book is intended for graduate students and researchers in geometry (commutative or not), group theory, algebraic topology, harmonic analysis, and operator algebras. It presents, for the first time in book form, an introduction to the Baum-Connes conjecture. It starts by defining carefully the objects in both sides of the conjecture, then the assembly map which connects them. Thereafter it illustrates the main tool to attack the conjecture (Kasparov's theory), and it concludes with a rough sketch of V. Lafforgue's proof of the conjecture for co-compact lattices in in Spn1, SL(3R), and SL(3C).

The Baum-Connes conjecture is part of A. Connes' non-commutative geometry programme. It can be viewed as a conjectural generalisation of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, to the equivariant setting (the ambient manifold is not compact, but some compactness is restored by means of a proper, co-compact action of a group "gamma"). Like the Atiyah-Singer theorem, the Baum-Connes conjecture states that a purely topological object coincides with a purely analytical one. For a given group "gamma", the topological object is the equivariant K-homology of the classifying space for proper actions of "gamma", while the analytical object is the K-theory of the C*-algebra associated with "gamma" in its regular representation. The Baum-Connes conjecture implies several other classical conjectures, ranging from differential topology to pure algebra. It has also strong connections with geometric group theory, as the proof of the conjecture for a given group "gamma" usually depends heavily on geometric properties of "gamma". This book is intended for graduate students and researchers in geometry (commutative or not), group theory, algebraic topology, harmonic analysis, and operator algebras. It presents, for the first time in book form, an introduction to the Baum-Connes conjecture. It starts by defining carefully the objects in both sides of the conjecture, then the assembly map which connects them. Thereafter it illustrates the main tool to attack the conjecture (Kasparov's theory), and it concludes with a rough sketch of V. Lafforgue's proof of the conjecture for co-compact lattices in in Spn1, SL(3R), and SL(3C).

This volume is an introductory textbook to K-theory, both algebraic and topological, and to various current research topics within the field, including Kasparov's bivariant K-theory, the Baum-Connes conjecture, the comparison between algebraic and topological K-theory of topological algebras, the K-theory of schemes, and the theory of dg-categories.

This book offers a panorama of recent advances in the theory of infinite groups. It contains survey papers contributed by leading specialists in group theory and other areas of mathematics. Topics include amenable groups, Kaehler groups, automorphism groups of rooted trees, rigidity, C*-algebras, random walks on groups, pro-p groups, Burnside groups, parafree groups, and Fuchsian groups. The accent is put on strong connections between group theory and other areas of mathematics.

This book gives an account of the necessary background for group algebras and crossed products for actions of a group or a semigroup on a space and reports on some very recently developed techniques with applications to particular examples. Much of the material is available here for the first time in book form. The topics discussed are among the most classical and intensely studied C*-algebras. They are important for applications in fields as diverse as the theory of unitary group representations, index theory, the topology of manifolds or ergodic theory of group actions. Part of the most basic structural information for such a C*-algebra is contained in its K-theory. The determination of the K-groups of C*-algebras constructed from group or semigroup actions is a particularly challenging problem. Paul Baum and Alain Connes proposed a formula for the K-theory of the reduced crossed product for a group action that would permit, in principle, its computation. By work of many hands, the formula has by now been verified for very large classes of groups and this work has led to the development of a host of new techniques. An important ingredient is Kasparov's bivariant K-theory. More recently, also the C*-algebras generated by the regular representation of a semigroup as well as the crossed products for actions of semigroups by endomorphisms have been studied in more detail. Intriguing examples of actions of such semigroups come from ergodic theory as well as from algebraic number theory. The computation of the K-theory of the corresponding crossed products needs new techniques. In cases of interest the K-theory of the algebras reflects ergodic theoretic or number theoretic properties of the action.