An etale approach to the Novikov conjecture

We show that the rational Novikov conjecture for a group Γ of finite homological type follows from the mod 2 acyclicity of the Higson compactification of an EΓ. We then show that for groups of finite asymptotic dimension, the Higson compactification is mod p acyclic for all p and deduce the integral Novikov conjecture for these groups. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.