George A. Elliott,Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada M5S 2E4; e-mail: elliott@math.toronto.edu

It is shown that the index map in the theory of real Banach algebras is unique as a natural transformation, up to an integral multiple, and modulo a (unique) two-torsion “ghost” map arising from the order-two K\(_1\)-group of the Banach algebra \({\mathbb R}\) (of real numbers). (In the earlier paper this was shown for complex Banach algebras, of course without the “ghost” map, but in way—using Bott periodicity to pass to the opposite parity—that is not available for real Banach algebras. The present approach yields a new proof in the complex case.)

On démontre que l’application index dans la K-théorie des algèbres de Banach réelles (ou complexes) est essentiellment unique.