We introduce a class of metric spaces which we call “bolic”. They include hyperbolic spaces, simply connected complete manifolds of nonpositive curvature, euclidean buildings, etc. We prove the Novikov conjecture on higher signatures for any discrete group which admits a proper isometric action on a “bolic”, weakly geodesic metric space of bounded geometry. 1. Introduction This work has grown out of an attempt to give a purely KK-theoretic proof of a result of A. Connes and H. Moscovici ([CM], [CGM]) that hyperbolic groups satisfy the Novikov conjecture. .
