The Strong Atiyah Conjecture over a subfield of the complex numbers

Let K\mathbb{K} be a subfield of C\mathbb{C}, let GG be a countable group with a bound on the orders of its finite subgroups, and let lcm(G)\mathrm{lcm}(G) denote the least common multiple of the orders of the finite subgroups of GG. For a finite matrix AA over K[G]\mathbb{K}[G], let rkN(G)(A)\mathrm{rk}_{\mathcal N(G)}(A) be its von Neumann rank. The Strong Atiyah Conjecture over K\mathbb{K}. For every finite matrix AA over K[G]\mathbb{K}[G], one has

rkN(G)(A)1lcm(G)Z.\mathrm{rk}_{\mathcal N(G)}(A)\in\frac{1}{\mathrm{lcm}(G)}\mathbb{Z}.

This conjecture is known over C\mathbb{C} for many classes of groups, including locally indicable groups, braid groups, elementary amenable groups, virtually compact special groups, and 33-manifold groups, and it is stable under free products of groups satisfying it. It has applications such as implying Kaplansky's zero-divisor conjecture for torsion-free groups, but it remains open in general.

Equivalent formulations 1

Other statements of this same problem, merged from separate entries. Each is equivalent to the statement above — proving any one settles them all.

  1. The Strong Atiyah Conjecture over a subfield of the complex numbers

    Let GG be a torsion-free countable group, let kk be a subfield of C\mathbb{C}, and let \D(k[G])\D(k[G]) be the Linnell ring, defined as the division closure of k[G]k[G] in the ring of unbounded operators affiliated to GG. The Strong Atiyah Conjecture over kk. The Linnell ring \D(k[G])\D(k[G]) is a division ring. The conjecture is open in general, although it has been established for many large classes of groups, including torsion-free 33-manifold groups.

    source: Pablo Sánchez-Peralta, “Simon's knot genus problem and Lewin 3-manifold groups”, arXiv:2603.26580 (2026).

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Sam P. Fisher and Andrew Ng, “Outer automorphism groups and the Atiyah Conjecture”, arXiv:2606.19606 (2026).

Additional references

8 papers in this index state this conjecture (2003–2026). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:2505.08701, arXiv:2412.16090, arXiv:2005.12814, arXiv:1602.04515, arXiv:1305.1071, arXiv:0810.1365, arXiv:math/0303097.

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