K-homology and Fredholm operators I: Dirac Operators

This is an expository paper which gives a proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem for Dirac operators, presenting the theorem as a computation of the K-homology of a point. This paper and its follow up ("K-homology and index theory II: Elliptic Operators") was written to clear up basic points about index theory that are generally accepted as valid, but for which no proof has been published. Some of these points are needed for the solution of the Heisenberg-elliptic index problem in our paper "K-homology and index theory on contact manifolds" Acta. Math. 2014.