Automorphisms of the canonical anticommutation relations and index theory

Let H be a complex Hilbert space, P₊ an orthogonal projection on H, and P_? the complementary projection. If $\text{G}$ is any symmetrically normed ideal in the ring of bounded operators on H, then we consider the group of unitary operators on H such that P₊UP_?and P_?UP₊ lie in $\text{G}$. When $\text{G}$ is the Hilbert-Schmidt class, these unitaries define automorphisms of the C¹-algebra $\text{b}$ of the canonical anticommutation relations over H which are implementable in the representation of $\text{b}$ determined by P_?. We investigate the structure of the group $\text{U}$, proving in particular that it has infinitely many connected components, $\text{U}$_k, labelled by the Fredholm index of P₊UP₊. The connected component of the identity, $\text{U}$₀, is generated by unitaries of the form exp(iA), with A self-adjoint and P₊AP_? in $\text{G}$. Finally we consider an application of these results to two dimensional field theory, showing in particular that the charge and chiral charge quantum numbers arise as the Fredholm indices of P_±UP_± for certain unitary U on L²($\text{R}$, $\text{C}$²)