A note on the higher Atiyah–Patodi–Singer index theorem on Galois coverings

Abstract

Let $\Gamma$ be a finitely generated discrete group satisfying the rapid decay condition. We give a new proof of the higher Atiyah–Patodi–Singer theorem on a Galois $\Gamma$-coverings, thus providing an explicit formula for the higher index associated to a group cocycle $c\in Z^k(\Gamma ;\mathbb{C})$ which is of polynomial growth with respect to a word-metric. Our new proof employs relative K-theory and relative cyclic cohomology in an essential way.