Suppose that A is a C*-algebra for which A is isomorphic to A tensor Z, where Z is the Jiang-Su algebra: a unital, simple, stably finite, separable, nuclear, infinite dimensional C*-algebra with the same Elliott invariant as the complex numbers. We show that:
(i) The Cuntz semigroup W(A) of equivalence classes of positive elements in matrix algebras over A is weakly unperforated.
(ii) If A is exact, then A is purely infinite if and only if A is traceless.
(iii) If A is separable and nuclear, then A is isomorphic to A tensor O_infty if and only if A is traceless.
(iv) If A is simple and unital, then the stable rank of A is one if and only if A is finite.
We also characterise when A is of real rank zero.
Suppose that $A,B$ are nuclear, separable ${\rm C}^*$-algebras of stable rank one and real rank zero, $A$ is unital simple, $B$ is stable and $({\rm K}_0(B),{\rm K}_0^+(B))$ is weakly unperforated in the sense of Elliott \cite{Ell}. We show that any unital extension with trivial index maps of $A$ by $B$ is absorbing.
Let A be a unital separable simple C*-algebra with a unique tracial state. We prove that if A is nuclear and quasidiagonal, then A tensored with the universal UHF-algebra has decomposition rank at most one. Then it is proved that A is nuclear, quasidiagonal and has strict comparison if and only if A has finite decomposition rank. For such A, we also give a direct proof that A tensored with a UHF-algebra has tracial rank zero. Applying this characterization, we obtain a counter-example to the Powers-Sakai conjecture.
We prove the title. This characterizes the Jiang-Su algebra Z as the uniquely determined initial object in the category of strongly self-absorbing C*-algebras.
We study permanence properties of the classes of stable and so-called D-stable C*-algebras, respectively. More precisely, we show that a C_0(X)-algebra A is stable if all its fibres are, provided that the underlying compact metrizable space X has finite covering dimension or that the Cuntz semigroup of A is almost unperforated (a condition which is automatically satisfied for C*-algebras absorbing the Jiang--Su algebra Z tensorially). Furthermore, we prove that if D is a K_1-injective strongly self-absorbing C*-algebra, then A absorbs D tensorially if and only if all its fibres do, again provi…
It is shown that a strongly self-absorbing C*-algebra is of real rank zero and absorbs the Jiang-Su algebra if it contains a nontrivial projection. We also consider cases where the UCT is automatic for strongly self-absorbing C*-algebras, and K-theoretical ways of characterizing when Kirchberg algebras are strongly self-absorbing.
We define a notion of tracial $\mathcal{Z}$-absorption for simple not necessarily unital C*-algebras, study it systematically, and prove its permanence properties. This extends the notion defined by Hirshberg and Orovitz for unital C*-algebras. The Razak-Jacelon algebra, simple C*-algebras with tracial rank zero, and simple purely infinite C*-algebras are tracially $\mathcal{Z}$-absorbing. We obtain the first purely infinite examples of tracially $\mathcal{Z}$-absorbing C*-algebras which are not $\mathcal{Z}$-absorbing. We use techniques from reduced free products of von~Neumann algebras to co…
Elliott and Kucerovsky stated that a non-unital extension of separable $C^\ast$-algebras with a stable ideal, is nuclearly absorbing if and only if the extension is purely large. However, their proof was flawed. We give a counter example to their theorem as stated, but establish an equivalent formulation of nuclear absorption under a very mild additional assumption to being purely large. In particular, if the quotient algebra is non-unital, then we show that the original theorem applies. We also examine how this effects results in classification theory.
Continuing our project on noncommutative (stable) homotopy we construct symmetric monoidal $\infty$-categorical models for separable $C^*$-algebras $\mathtt{SC^*_\infty}$ and noncommutative spectra $\mathtt{NSp}$ using the framework of Higher Algebra due to Lurie. We study smashing (co)localizations of $\mathtt{SC^*_\infty}$ and $\mathtt{NSp}$ with respect to strongly self-absorbing $C^*$-algebras. We analyse the homotopy categories of the localizations of $\mathtt{SC^*_\infty}$ and give universal characterizations thereof. We construct a stable $\infty$-categorical model for bivariant connect…
Say that a separable, unital C*-algebra D is strongly self-absorbing if there exists an isomorphism $ϕ: D \to D \otimes D$ such that $ϕ$ and $id_D \otimes 1_D$ are approximately unitarily equivalent $*$-homomorphisms. We study this class of algebras, which includes the Cuntz algebras $\mathcal{O}_2$, $\mathcal{O}_{\infty}$, the UHF algebras of infinite type, the Jiang--Su algebra Z and tensor products of $\Oh_{\infty}$ with UHF algebras of infinite type. Given a strongly self-absorbing C*-algebra D we characterise when a separable C*-algebra absorbs D tensorially (i.e., is D-stable), and prove…
The connected stable rank and the general stable rank are homotopy invariants for Banach algebras, whereas the Bass stable rank and the topological stable rank should be thought of as dimensional invariants. This paper studies the two homotopical stable ranks, viz. their general properties as well as specific examples and computations. The picture that emerges is that of a strong affinity between the homotopical stable ranks, and a marked contrast with the dimensional ones.
We prove equality between the Topological Stable Rank and the Bass Stable Rank for finitely generated projective left modules over a unital C*-algebra. In order to do so, the concept of Stable Rank of a Hilbert module is introduced.
This paper serves as a source of examples of Rokhlin actions or locally representable actions of finite groups on C*-algebras satisfying a certain UHF-absorption condition. We show that given any finite group $G$ and a separable, unital C*-algebra $A$ that absorbs $M_{|G|^\infty}$ tensorially, one can lift any group homomorphism $G\to\operatorname{Aut}(A)/{\approx_u}$ to an honest Rokhlin action $γ$ of $G$ on $A$. Unitality may be dropped in favour of stable rank one or being stable. If $A$ belongs to a certain class of C*-algebras that is classifiable by a suitable invariant (e.g. $K$-theory)…
In this paper we consider a bootstrap class $\mathfrak C$ of countable discrete groups, which is closed under countable unions and extensions by the integers, and we study actions of such groups on C*-algebras. This class includes all torsion-free abelian groups, poly-$\mathbb Z$-groups, as well as other examples. Using the interplay between relative Rokhlin dimension and semi-strongly self-absorbing actions established in prior work, we obtain the following two main results for any group $Γ\in\mathfrak C$ and any strongly self-absorbing C*-algebra $\mathcal D$: (1) There is a unique strongly …
We show that every separable simple tracially approximately divisible $C^*$-algebra has strict comparison, is either purely infinite, or has stable rank one. As a consequence, we show that every (non-unital) finite simple ${\cal Z}$-stable $C^*$-algebra has stable rank one.
We study the structure and compute the stable rank of C*-algebras of finite higher-rank graphs. We completely determine the stable rank of the C*-algebra when the k-graph either contains no cycle with an entrance, or is cofinal. We also determine exactly which finite, locally convex k-graphs yield unital stably finite C*-algebras. We give several examples to illustrate our results.
Let $A$ be a separable, unital, simple C*-algebra with stable rank one. We show that every strictly positive, lower semicontinuous, affine function on the simplex of normalized quasitraces of $A$ is realized as the rank of an operator in the stabilization of $A$. Assuming moreover that $A$ has locally finite nuclear dimension, we deduce that $A$ is $\mathcal{Z}$-stable if and only if it has strict comparison of positive elements. In particular, the Toms-Winter conjecture holds for separable, unital, simple, approximately subhomogeneous C*-algebras with stable rank one.
We study the general and connected stable ranks for C*-algebras. We estimate these ranks for pullbacks of C*-algebras, and for tensor products by commutative C*-algebras. Finally, we apply these results to determine these ranks for certain commutative C*-algebras, and non-commutative CW-complexes.
We introduce a class of recursive subhomogeneous algebras that we call diagonal subhomogeneous and we give a notion of diagonal maps between these algebras. We show that any simple limit of diagonal subhomogeneous algebras with diagonal maps has stable rank one. As an application we show that for any minimal homeomorphism of a compact Hausdorff space the associated crossed product has stable rank one.
Let A be a unital maximal full algebra of operator fields with base space the k-cube [0,1]^k and fibre algebras, say, {A_t}_{t \in [0,1]^k}. Then the stable rank of A is bounded above by the supremum of the stable ranks sr(C([0,1]^k) \otimes A_t) for t \in [0,1]^k. Using this estimate, we compute the stable ranks of the universal C^*-algebras of the discrete Heisenberg groups.
We study the general and connected stable ranks for $C^{\ast}$-algebras. We estimate these ranks for certain $C(X)$-algebras, and use that to do the same for certain group $C^{\ast}$-algebras. Furthermore, we also give estimates for the ranks of crossed product $C^{\ast}$-algebras by finite group actions with the Rokhlin property.
Let G be a finitely generated, torsion-free, two-step nilpotent group. Let C^*(G) be the universal C^*-algebra of G. We show that acsr(C^*(G)) = acsr(C((\hat{G})_1)), where for a unital C^*-algebra A, acsr(A) is the absolute connected stable rank of A, and (\hat{G})_1 is the space of one-dimensional representations of G. For the case of stable rank, we have close results. In the process, we give a stable rank estimate for maximal full algebras of operator fields over a metric space.
It is shown that, for a C*-algebra of stable rank one (i.e., in which the invertible elements are dense), two well-known isomorphism invariants, the Cuntz semigroup and the Thomsen semigroup, contain the same information. More precisely, these two invariants, viewed appropiately, determine each other in a natural way.
In this paper, we show that for unital, separable $C^*$-algebras of stable rank one and real rank zero, the unitary Cuntz semigroup functor and the functor ${\rm K}_*$ are naturallly equivalent. Then we introduce a refinement of the unitary Cuntz semigroup, say the total Cuntz semigroup, which is a new invariant for separable $C^*$-algebras of stable rank one, is a well-defined continuous functor from the category of $C^*$-algebras of stable rank one to the category ${\rm\underline{ Cu}}$. We prove that this new functor and the functor ${\rm \underline{K}}$ are naturallly equivalent for unital…
We provide a negative solution to a question of M. Rieffel who asked if the right and left topological stable ranks of a Banach algebra must always agree. Our example is found amongst a class of nest algebras. We show that for many other nest algebras, both the left and right topological stable ranks are infinite. We extend this latter result to Popescu's non-commutative disc algebras and to free semigroup algebras as well.
We study circle actions with the Rokhlin property, in relation to their restrictions to finite subgroups. We construct examples showing the following: the restriction of a circle action with the Rokhlin property (even on a real rank zero $C^*$-algebra), need not have the Rokhlin property; and even if every restriction of a given circle action has the Rokhlin property, the circle action itself need not have it. As a positive result, we show that the restriction of a circle action with the Rokhlin property to the subgroup $\mathbb{Z}_n$ has the Rokhlin property if the underlying algebra absorbs …
We show that every separable C*-algebra of real rank zero that tensorially absorbs the Jiang-Su algebra contains a dense set of generators. It follows that in every classifiable, simple, nuclear C*-algebra, a generic element is a generator.
Let $1 \in A \subset B$ be an inclusion of C*-algebras of C*-index-finite type with depth 2. We try to compute topological stable rank of $B$ ($= \tsr(B)$) when $A$ has topological stable rank one. We show that $\tsr(B) \leq 2$ when $A$ is a tsr boundedly divisible algebra, in particular, $A$ is a C*-minimal tensor product $UHF \otimes D$ with $\tsr(D) = 1$. When $G$ is a finite group and $α$ is an action of $G$ on UHF, we know that a crossed product algebra $UHF \rtimes_αG$ has topological stable rank less than or equal to two. These results are affirmative datum to a generalization of a ques…
We show that if A is a separable, nuclear, O_infty-absorbing (or strongly purely infinite) C*-algebra, which is homotopic to zero in an ideal-system preserving way, then A is the inductive limit of C*-algebras of the form M_k(C_0(G,v)), where G is a finite graph (and C_0(G,v) is the algebra of continuous functions on G that vanish at a distinguished point v in G). We show further that any separable, nuclear, stable, O_2-absorbing C*-algebra is isomorphic to a crossed product of a C*-algebra D with the integers by an action alpha, where D is an inductive limit of C*-algebras of the form M_k(C_0…
We prove that the infinite tensor power of a unital separable C*-algebra absorbs the Jiang-Su algebra Z tensorially if and only if it contains, unitally, a subhomogeneous algebra without characters. This yields a succinct universal property for Z in a category so large that there are no unital separable C*-algebras without characters known to lie outside it. This category moreover contains the vast majority of our stock-in-trade separable amenable C*-algebras, and is closed under passage to separable superalgebras and quotients, and hence to unital tensor products, unital direct limits, and cr…
For any unital separable simple infinite-dimensional nuclear C*-algebra with finitely many extremal traces, we prove that Z-absorption, strict comparison, and property (SI) are equivalent. We also show that any unital separable simple nuclear C*-algebra with tracial rank zero is approximately divisible, and hence is Z-absorbing.
We define centrally large subalgebras of simple unital C*-algebras, strengthening the definition of large subalgebras in previous work. We prove that if A is any infinite dimensional simple separable unital C*-algebra which contains a centrally large subalgebra with stable rank one, then A has stable rank one. We also prove that large subalgebras of crossed product type are automatically centrally large. We use these results to prove that if X is a compact metric space which has a surjective continuous map to the Cantor set, and h is a minimal homeomorphism of X, then C* (Z, X, h) has stable r…
We study the limits of inductive sequences (A_i,ϕ_i) where each A_i is a direct sum of full matrix algebras over compact metric spaces and each partial map of ϕ_i is diagonal. We give a new characterisation of simplicity for such algebras, and apply it to prove that the said algebras have stable rank one whenever they are simple and unital. Significantly, our results do not require any dimension growth assumption.
We calculate the real rank and stable rank of CCR algebras which either have only finite dimensional irreducible representations or have finite topological dimension. We show that either rank of A is determined in a good way by the ranks of an ideal I and the quotient A/I in four cases: When A is CCR; when I has only finite dimensional irreducible representations; when I is separable, of generalized continuous trace and finite topological dimension, and all irreducible representations of I are infinite dimensional; or when I is separable, stable, has an approximate identity consisting of proje…
For an arbitrary countable directed graph E we show that the only possible values of the stable rank of the associated Cuntz-Krieger algebra C*(E) are 1, 2 or \infty. Explicit criteria for each of these three cases are given. We characterize graph algebras of type I, and graph algebras which are inductive limits of C*-algebras of type I. We also show that a gauge-invariant ideal of a graph algebra is itself isomorphic to a graph algebra.
We introduce a subclass of recursive subhomogeneous algebras, in which each of the pullback maps is diagonal in a suitable sense. We define the notion of a diagonal map between two such algebras and show that every simple inductive limit of these algebras with diagonal bonding maps has stable rank one. As an application, we prove that for any infinite compact metric space $T$ and minimal homeomorphism $h\colon T\to T$, the associated dynamical crossed product $\mathrm{C^*}(\mathbb{Z},T,h)$ has stable rank one. This affirms a conjecture of Archey, Niu, and Phillips. We also show that the Toms-W…
A classification theorem is obtained for a class of unital simple separable amenable Z-stable C*-algebras which exhausts all possible values of the Elliott invariant for unital stably finite simple separable amenable Z-stable C*-algebras. Moreover, it contains all unital simple separable amenable C*-algebras which satisfy the UCT and have finite rational tracial rank
We show that if $A$ is a simple (not necessarily unital) tracially $\mathcal{Z}$-absorbing C*-algebra and $α\colon G \to \mathrm{Aut} (A)$ is an action of a finite group $G$ on $A$ with the weak tracial Rokhlin property, then the crossed product $C^*(G, A,α)$ and the fixed point algebra $A^α$ are simple and tracially $\mathcal{Z}$-absorbing, and they are $\mathcal{Z}$-stable if, in addition, $A$ is separable and nuclear. The same conclusion holds for all intermediate C*-algebras of the inclusions $A^α\subseteq A$ and $A \subseteq C^*(G, A,α)$. We prove that if $A$ is a simple tracially $\mathc…
We construct a simple, separable, unital, and nuclear C*-algebra with weakly unperforated K_0-group which does not absorb the Jiang-Su algebra Z tensorially. As a result, we obtain a stably finite counter-example to Elliott's classification conjecture for simple, separable, and nuclear C*-algebras.
We introduce the tracial Rokhlin property for automorphisms of stably finite simple unital C*-algebras containing enough projections. This property is formally weaker than the various Rokhlin properties considered by Herman and Ocneanu, Kishimoto, and Izumi. Our main results are as follows. Consider a stably finite simple unital C*-algebra, and an automorphism of it which has the tracial Rokhlin property. Suppose the algebra has real rank zero and stable rank one, and suppose that the order on projections over the algebra is determined by traces. Then the crossed product by the automorphism al…
We formally introduce the concept of localizing the Elliott conjecture at a given strongly self-absorbing C*-algebra $D$; we also explain how the known classification theorems for nuclear C*-algebras fit into this concept. As a new result in this direction, we employ recent results of Lin to show that (under a mild K-theoretic condition) the class of separable, unital, simple C*-algebras with locally finite decomposition rank and UCT, and for which projections separate traces, satisfies the Elliott conjecture localized at the Jiang-Su algebra Z. Our main result is formulated in a more general …
In the context of commutative $C^*$-algebras we solve a problem related to a question of M. Rieffel by showing that the all-units rank and the norm-one rank coincide with the topological stable rank. We also introduce the notion of unitary $M$-stable rank for an arbitrary commutative unital ring and compare it with the Bass stable rank. In case of uniform algebras, a sufficient condition for norm-one reducibility is given.
We show that the class of C*-algebras with stable rank greater than a given positive integer is axiomatizable in logic of metric structures. As a consequence we show that the stable rank is continuous with respect to forming ultrapowers of C*-algebras, and that stable rank is Kadison--Kastler stable.
We give a formula for the stable rank of inclusions of unital Banach algebras in the sense of finite Watatani index. As an application we show that the stable rank of $\ell^1$-algebras of Disk algebras by any action of finite groups is 2.
Various notions of stable ranks are studied for topological algebras. Some partial answers to R.G. Swan's problem (Have two Banach or good Fréchet algebras as in the density theorem in K-theory the same stable rank ?) are obtained. For example, a Fréchet dense $\ast$-subalgebra $A$ of a $C^\ast$-algebra $B$, closed under $C^\infty$-functional calculus of self-adjoint elements, has the same Bass stable rank as $B$.
A necessary and sufficient condition for the simplicity of the C*-algebra reduced free product of finite dimensional abelian algebras is found, and it is proved that the stable rank of every such free product is 1. Related results about other reduced free products of C*-algebras are proved.
We establish a general result about extending a right invertible row over a Banach algebra to an invertible matrix. This is applied to the computation of right topological stable rank of a split exact sequence. We also introduce a quantitative measure of stable rank. These results are applied to compute the right (left) topological stable rank for all nest algebras. This value is either 2 or infinity, and rtsr(T(N)) = 2 occurs only when N is of ordinal type less than omega^2 and the dimensions of the atoms grows sufficiently quickly. We introduce general results on `partial matrix algebras' ov…
