The relative index in coarse index theory and submanifold obstructions to uniform positive scalar curvature

Abstract: We provide a coarse version of the relative index of Gromov and Lawson and thoroughly establish all of its basic properties. As an application, we discuss a general procedure to construct wrong way maps on the $K$-theory of the Roe algebra mapping the coarse index class of the Dirac operator of a manifold to the one of a suitably embedded submanifold of arbitrary codimension, thereby establishing an abstract machinery to find obstructions to uniform positive scalar curvature coming from these submanifolds.