K-theory and the quantization commutes with reduction problem

Abstract

The authors examine the quantization commutes with reduction phenomenon for Hamiltonian actions of compact Lie groups on closed symplectic manifolds from the point of view of topological K-theory and K-homology. They develop the machinery of K-theory wrong-way maps in the context of orbifolds and use it to relate the quantization commutes with reduction phenomenon to Bott periodicity and the K-theory formulation of the Weyl character formula.