Spectral flow argument localizing an odd index pairing

Abstract

An odd Fredholm module for a given invertible operator on a Hilbert space is specified by an unbounded so-called Dirac operator with compact resolvent and bounded commutator with the given invertible. Associated to this is an index pairing in terms of a Fredholm operator with Noether index. Here it is shown by a spectral flow argument how this index can be calculated as the signature of a finite dimensional matrix called the spectral localizer.

minor corrections and improvements, to appear in Canadian Math Bull