Noncommutative motives, numerical equivalence, and semi-simplicity

Abstract: In this article we further the study of the relationship between pure motives and noncommutative motives. Making use of Hochschild homology, we introduce the category NNum(k)_F of noncommutative numerical motives (over a base ring k and with coefficients in a field F). We prove that NNum(k)_F is abelian semi-simple and that Grothendieck's category Num(k)_Q of numerical motives embeds in NNum(k)_Q after being factored out by the action of the Tate object. As an application we obtain an alternative proof of Jannsen's semi-simplicity result, which uses the noncommutative world instead of a Weil cohomology.