Quasidiagonality was introduced by P.R. Halmos for operators and quickly
generalized to C^*-algebras. D. Voiculescu asked how quasidiagonality
(in its various forms) was related to topological invariants. N.
Salinas systematically studied the topology of the Kasparov groups
KK_*(A,B) and showed that this topology is related to relative
quasidiagonality.
In this paper we identify QD_*(A,B), the quasidiagonal elements in
KK_*(A,B), in terms of K_*(A) and K_*(B), and we use these results in
various applications. Here is our central result. Let N denote the
bootstrap category.
Theorem: Suppose that A \in N and A is quasidiagonal relative to B.
Then there is a natural isomorphism
QD_*(A,B) \cong Pext_{\Bbb Z}^1( {K_*(A)},{K_*(B)}) _{*-1}
Thus for A \in N relative quasidiagonality is indeed a topological
invariant. We also settle a question raised by L.G. Brown on the
relation between relative quasidiagonality and the kernel of the
natural map
Ext_{\Bbb Z}^1 ( K_*(A), K_*(B) ) \to Ext_{\Bbb Z}^1 ( K_*(A)_t, K_*(B) )
where K_*(A)_t denotes the torsion subgroup of K_*(A). Finally we
establish a converse to a theorem of Davidson, Herrero, and Salinas,
giving conditions under which the quasidiagonality of A/K implies the
quasidiagonality of A.
Note: This paper, and to a small extent "Fine Structure I" replace and very
substantially extend the preliminary preprint Continuity of
the Kasparov pairing and relative quasidiagonality which will not appear.