This work draws together ideas from algebraic topology, functional analysis and geometry. It is a tool - a means of conveying information among these three subjects - and it has been used with success to discover theorems across a wide span of mathematics. The purpose of this book is to acquaint the reader with the essential ideas of analytic K-homology and develop some of its applications. It includes a detailed introduction to the necessary functional analysis, followed by an exploration of the connections between K-homology and operator theory, coarse geometry, index theory, and assembly...

Coarse geometry is the study of spaces (particularly metric spaces) from a ''large scale'' point of view, so that two spaces that look the same from a great distance are actually equivalent. This point of view is effective because it is often true that the relevant geometric properties of metric spaces are determined by their coarse geometry. Two examples of important uses of coarse geometry are Gromov's beautiful notion of a hyperbolic group and Mostow's proof of his famous rigidity theorem. The first few chapters of the book provide a general perspective on coarse structures. Even when only...