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 with 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.

Fix a von Neumann algebra ${\mathcal{N}}$ equipped with a suitable trace $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$. For a path of self-adjoint Breuer–Fredholm operators, the spectral flow measures the net amount of spectrum that moves from negative to non-negative. We consider specifically the case of paths of bounded perturbations of a fixed unbounded self-adjoint Breuer–Fredholm operator affiliated with ${\mathcal{N}}$. If the unbounded operator is $p$-summable (that is, its resolvents are contained in the ideal $L^{p}$), then it is possible to obtain an integral formula that calculates spectral flow. This integral formula was first proved by Carey and Phillips, building on earlier approaches of Phillips. Their proof was based on first obtaining a formula for the larger class of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}$-summable operators, and then using Laplace transforms to obtain a $p$-summable formula. In this paper, we present a direct proof of the $p$-summable formula that is both shorter and simpler than theirs.

We consider bifurcation of solutions from a given trivial branch for a class of strongly indefinite elliptic systems via the spectral flow. Our main results establish bifurcation invariants that can be obtained from the coefficients of the systems without using explicit solutions of their linearizations at the given branch. Our constructions are based on a comparison principle for the spectral flow and a generalization of a bifurcation theorem due to Szulkin.

We prove two results about nonunital index theory left open in a previous paper. The first is that the spectral triple arising from an action of the reals on a ${{C}^{*}}$-algebra with invariant trace satisfies the hypotheses of the nonunital local index formula. The second result concerns the meaning of spectral flow in the nonunital case. For the special case of paths arising from the odd index pairing for smooth spectral triples in the nonunital setting, we are able to connect with earlier approaches to the analytic definition of spectral flow.

Given an essentially unitary contraction and an arbitrary unitary dilation of it, there is a naturally associated spectral flow that is shown to be equal to the index of the operator. This result is interpreted in terms of the K-theory of an associated mapping cone. It is then extended to connect Z2 indices of odd symmetric Fredholm operators to a Z2-valued spectral flow.

We present a definition of spectral flow for any norm closed ideal J in any von Neumann algebra N. Given a path of selfadjoint operators in N which are invertible in N/J, the spectral flow produces a class in Ko(J).

Given a semifinite spectral triple (A, H, D) relative to (N, τ) with A separable, we construct a class [D] ∈ KK1(A, K(N)). For a unitary u ∈ A, the von Neumann spectral flow between D and u*Du is equal to the Kasparov product [u]A[D], and is simply related to the numerical spectral flow, and a refined C*-spectral flow.

We explain an array of basic functional analysis puzzles on the way to general spectral flow formulae and indicate a direction of future topological research for dealing with these puzzles.

We introduce a new topology, weaker than the gap topology, on the space of self-adjoint operators affiliated to a semifinite von Neumann algebra. We define the real-valued spectral flow for a continuous path of self-adjoint Breuer–Fredholm operators in terms of a generalization of the winding number. We compare our definition with Phillips's analytical definition and derive integral formulae for the spectral flow for certain paths of unbounded operators with common domain, generalizing those of Carey and Phillips. Furthermore, we prove the homotopy invariance of the real-valued index. As an example we consider invariant symmetric elliptic differential operators on Galois coverings.