Levinson's theorem and higher degree traces for Aharonov-Bohm operators

We study Levinson-type theorems for the family of Aharonov-Bohm models from different perspectives. The first one is purely analytical involving the explicit calculation of the wave-operators and allowing to determine precisely the various contributions to the left hand side of Levinson's theorem, namely, those due to the scattering operator, the terms at 0-energy and at energy +infinity. The second one is based on non-commutative topology revealing the topological nature of Levinson's theorem. We then include the parameters of the family into the topological description obtaining a new type of Levinson's theorem, a higher degree Levinson's theorem. In this context, the Chern number of a bundle defined by a family of projections on bound states is explicitly computed and related to the result of a 3-trace applied on the scattering part of the model. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3582943]