Projective Modules over Higher-Dimensional Non-Commutative Tori

Abstract

The non-commutative tori provide probably the most accessible interesting examples of non-commutative differentiable manifolds. We can identify an ordinary n-torus Tn with its algebra, C(Tn), of continuous complex-valued functions under pointwise multiplication. But C(Tn) is the universal C*-algebra generated by n commuting unitary operators. By definition, [15, 16, 50], a non-commutative n-torus is the universal C*-algebra generated by n unitary operators which, while they need not commute, have as multiplicative commutators various fixed scalar multiples of the identity operator. As Connes has shown [8, 10], these algebras have a natural differentiable structure, defined by a natural ergodic action of Tn as a group of automorphisms. The non-commutative tori behave in inany ways like ordinary tori. For instance, it is an almost immediate consequence of the work of Pimsner and Voiculescu [37] that the K-groups of a non-commutative torus are the same as those of an ordinary torus of the same dimension. (In particular, non-commutative tori are KK-equivalent to ordinary tori by Corollary 7.5 of [52].) Furthermore, the structure constants of non-commutative tori can be continuously deformed into those for ordinary tori. (This is exploited in [17].)