We show that finitely generated subhomogeneous C*-algebras have finite decomposition rank. As a consequence, any separable ASH C*-algebra can be written as an inductive limit of subhomogeneous C*-algebras each of which has finite decomposition rank. It then follows from work of H. Lin and of the second named author that the class of simple unital ASH algebras which have real rank zero and absorb the Jiang-Su algebra tensorially satisfies the Elliott conjecture.
Let $n$ be a natural number. Recall that a C*-algebra is said to be $n$-subhomogeneous if all its irreducible representations have dimension at most $n$. In this short note, we give various approximation properties characterising $n$-subhomogeneous C*-algebras.
It is shown that every Jiang-Su stable approximately subhomogeneous C*-algebra has finite decomposition rank. Previously, it was not even known that such algebras have finite nuclear dimension. A key step in the proof is that subhomogeneous C*-algebra are locally approximated by a certain class of more tractable subhomogeneous algebras, namely, a non-commutative generalization of the class of cell complexes. The result is applied to show that Jiang-Su stable minimal Z-crossed products have finite decomposition rank.
We study semiprojective, subhomogeneous C*-algebras and give a detailed description of their structure. In particular, we find two characterizations of semiprojectivity for subhomogeneous C*-algebras: one in terms of their primitive ideal spaces and one by means of special direct limit structures over one-dimensional NCCW complexes. These results are obtained by working out several new permanence results for semiprojectivity, including a complete description of its behavior with respect to extensions by homogeneous C*-algebras.
A new category of topological spaces with additional structures, called m-towers, is introduced. It is shown that there is a covariant functor which establishes a one-to-one correspondences between unital (resp. arbitrary) subhomogeneous C*-algebras and proper (resp. proper pointed) m-towers of finite height, and between all *-homomorphisms between two such algebras and morphisms between m-towers corresponding to these algebras.
Suppose A is a unital subhomogeneous C*-algebra. We show that every central sequence in A is hypercentral if and only if every pointwise limit of a sequence of irreducible representations is multiplicity free. We also show that every central sequence in A is trivial if and only if every pointwise limit of irreducible representations is irreducible. We also give a nice repesentation of the latter algebras.
We introduce and characterize a particularly tractable class of unital type 1 C*-algebras with bounded dimension of irreducible representations. Algebras in this class are called recursive subhomogeneous algebras, and they have an inductive description (through iterated pullbacks) which allows one to carry over from algebras of the form C (X, M_n) many of the constructions relevant in the study of the stable rank and K-theory of simple direct limits of homogeneous C*-algebras. Our characterization implies in particular that if A is a separable C*-algebra whose irreducible representations all h…
In this paper, we introduce stable recursive subhomogeneous algebras (SRSHAs), which is analogous to recursive subhomogeneous algebras (RSHAs) introduced by N. C. Phillips in the studies of free minimal integer actions on compact metric spaces. The difference between the stable version and the none stable version is that the irreducible representations of SRSHAs are infinite dimensional, but the irreducible representations of the RSHAs are finite dimensional. While RSHAs play an important role in the study of free minimal integer actions on compact metric spaces, SRSHAs play an analogous role …
A classification is given of certain separable nuclear C*-algebras not necessarily of real rank zero, namely the class of simple C*-algebras which are inductive limits of continuous-trace C*-algebras whose building blocks have their spectrum homeomorphic to the interval [0,1] or to a finite disjoint union of closed intervals. In particular, a classification of those stably AI algebras which are inductive limits of hereditary sub-C*-algebras of interval algebras is obtained. Also, the range of the invariant is calculated.
We compute the generator rank of a subhomgeneous C*-algebra in terms of the covering dimension of the pieces of its primitive ideal space corresponding to irreducible representations of a fixed dimension. We deduce that every Z-stable ASH-algebra has generator rank one, which means that a generic element in such an algebra is a generator. This leads to a strong solution of the generator problem for classifiable, simple, nuclear C*-algebras: a generic element in each such algebra is a generator. Examples of Villadsen show that this is not the case for all separable, simple, nuclear C*-algebras.
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.
We analyze the decomposition rank (a notion of covering dimension for nuclear $C^*$-algebras introduced by E. Kirchberg and the author) of subhomogeneous $C^*$-algebras. In particular we show that a subhomogeneous $C^*$-algebra has decomposition rank $n$ if and only if it is recursive subhomogeneous of topological dimension $n$ and that $n$ is determined by the primitive ideal space. As an application, we use recent results of Q. Lin and N. C. Phillips to show the following: Let $A$ be the crossed product $C^*$-algebra coming from a compact smooth manifold and a minimal diffeomorphism. Then th…
Let A be a unital simple direct limit of recursive subhomogeneous C*-algebras with no dimension growth. We give criteria which specify exactly when A has real rank zero, and exactly when A has the Property (SP): every nonzero hereditary subalgebra of A contains a nonzero projection. Specifically, A has real rank zero if and only if the natural map from K_0 (A) to the continuous affine functions on the tracial state space has dense range, A has the Property (SP) if and only if the range of this map contains strictly positive functions with arbitrarily small norm. By comparison with results for …
This paper explores the following regularity properties and their relationships for simple, not-necessarily-unital C*-algebras: (i) Jiang-Su stability, (ii) Unperforation in the Cuntz semigroup, and (iii) slow dimension growth (applying only in the case that the C*-algebra is approximately subhomogeneous). An example is given of a simple, separable, nuclear, stably projectionless C*-algebra whose Cuntz semigroup is not almost unperforated. This example is in fact approximately subhomogeneous. It is also shown that, in contrast to this example, when an approximately subhomogeneous simple C*-alg…
A unital $C^*$-algebra is called $N$-subhomogeneous if its irreducible representations are finite dimensional with dimension at most $N$. We extend this notion to operator systems, replacing irreducible representations by boundary representations. This is done by considering the matrix state space associated with an operator system and identifying the boundary representations as absolute matrix extreme points. We show that two $N$-subhomogeneous operator systems are completely order equivalent if and only if they are $N$-order equivalent. Moreover, we show that a unital $N$-positive map into a…
We consider unital simple inductive limits of generalized dimension drop C*-algebras They are so-called ASH-algebras and include all unital simple AH-algebras and all dimension drop $C^*$-algebras. Suppose that $A$ is one of these C*-algebras. We show that $A\otimes Q$ has tracial rank no more than one, where $Q$ is the rational UHF-algebra. As a consequence, we obtain the following classification result: Let $A$ and $B$ be two unital simple inductive limits of generalized dimension drop algebras with no dimension growth. Then $A\cong B$ if and only if they have the same Elliott invariant.
We prove the following results for a unital simple direct limit $A$ of recursive subhomogeneous algebras with no dimension growth: (1) A has stable rank 1. (2) The projections in $M_{\infty} (A)$ satisfy cancellation: if $e \oplus q \sim f \oplus q$, then $e \sim f$. (3) $A$ satisfies Blackadar's Second Fundamental Comparability Question: if $p, q \in M_{\infty} (A)$ are projections such that $τ(p) < τ(q)$ for all normalized traces $τ$ on $A$, then $p$ is equivalent to a subprojection of $q$. (4) $K_0 (A)$ is unperforated for the strict order: if $η\in K_0 (A)$ and there is $n > 0$ such that $…
Let $(X, Γ)$ be a free minimal dynamical system, where $X$ is a compact separable Hausdorff space and $Γ$ is a discrete amenable group. It is shown that, if $(X, Γ)$ has a version of Rokhlin property (uniform Rokhlin property) and if $\mathrm{C}(X)\rtimesΓ$ has a Cuntz comparison on open sets, then the comparison radius of the crossed product C*-algebra $\mathrm{C}(X) \rtimes Γ$ is at most half of the mean topological dimension of $(X, Γ)$. These two conditions are shown to be satisfied if $Γ= \mathbb Z$ or if $(X, Γ)$ is an extension of a free Cantor system and $Γ$ has subexponential growth. …
We show that group C*-algebras of finitely generated, nilpotent groups have finite nuclear dimension. It then follows, from a string of deep results, that the C*-algebra $A$ generated by an irreducible representation of such a group has decomposition rank at most 3. If, in addition, $A$ satisfies the universal coefficient theorem, another string of deep results shows it is classifiable by its Elliott invariant and is approximately subhomogeneous. We give a large class of irreducible representations of nilpotent groups (of arbitrarily large nilpotency class) that satisfy the universal coefficie…
Let $A$ be a simple separable unital locally approximately subhomogeneous C*-algebra (locally ASH algebra). It is shown that $A\otimes Q$ can be tracially approximated by unital Elliott-Thomsen algebras with trivial $\textrm{K}_1$-group, where $Q$ is the universal UHF algebra. In particular, it follows that $A$ is classifiable by the Elliott invariant if $A$ is Jiang-Su stable.
This is a survey article describing the proof that the crossed product C^* (Z, M, h) of a compact smooth manifold M by a minimal diffeomorphism h of M is isomorphic to a direct limit of recursive subhomogeneous C*-algebras.
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 introduce the growth rank of a C*-algebra, a (N \cup {\infty})-valued invariant which measures how far an algebra is from absorbing the Jiang-Su algebra Z tensorially. We prove that its range is exhausted by simple nuclear C*-algebras, and obtain in the process a well developed theory of unbounded dimension growth for approximately homogeneous (AH) algebras. Another consequence of the range result is the existence of a simple, nuclear, and non-Z-stable C*-algebra which is not tensorially prime. The properties of the growth rank suggest a universal property which may be considered inside any…
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…
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…
We show that unital simple C*-algebras with tracial topological rank zero which are locally approximated by subhomogeneous C^-algebras can be classified by their ordered $K$-theory. We apply this classification result to show that certain simple crossed products are isomorphic if they have the same ordered $K$-theory. In particular, irrational higher dimensional non-commutative tori of the form $C({\mathbb T}^k)\times_θ{\mathbb Z}$ are in fact inductive limits of circle algebras.
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…
We examine the ranks of operators in semi-finite C*-algebras as measured by their densely defined lower semicontinuous traces. We first prove that a unital simple C*-algebra whose extreme tracial boundary is nonempty and finite contains positive operators of every possible rank, independent of the property of strict comparison. We then turn to nonunital simple algebras and establish criteria that imply that the Cuntz semigroup is recovered functorially from the Murray-von Neumann semigroup and the space of densely defined lower semicontinuous traces. Finally, we prove that these criteria are s…
Let A be an approximately subhomogeneous (ASH) C*-algebra with slow dimension growth. We prove that if A is unital and simple, then the Cuntz semigroup of A agrees with that of its tensor product with the Jiang-Su algebra Z. In tandem with a result of W. Winter, this yields the equivalence of Z-stability and slow dimension growth for unital simple ASH algebras. This equivalence has several consequences, including the following classification theorem: unital ASH algebras which are simple, have slow dimension growth, and in which projections separate traces are determined up to isomorphism by th…
The main result here is that a simple separable C*-algebra is Z-stable (where Z denotes the Jiang-Su algebra) if (i) it has finite nuclear dimension or (ii) it is approximately subhomogeneous with slow dimension growth. This generalizes the main results of [Toms, "K-theoretic rigidity and slow dimension growth"; Winter, "Nuclear dimension and Z-stability of pure C*-algebras"] to the nonunital setting. As a consequence, finite nuclear dimension implies Z-stability even in the case of a separable C*-algebra with finitely many ideals. Algebraic simplicity is established as a fruitful weakening of…
We show that, if A is a separable simple unital C*-algebra which absorbs the Jiang-Su algebra Z tensorially and which has real rank zero and finite decomposition rank, then A is tracially AF in the sense of Lin, without any restriction on the tracial state space. As a consequence, the Elliott conjecture is true for the class of C*-algebras as above which, additionally, satisfy the Universal Coefficients Theorem. In particular, such algebras are completely determined by their ordered K-theory. They are approximately homogeneous of topological dimension less than or equal to 3, approximately sub…
In this note, we will point out, as a corollary of Popa's rigidity theory, that the crossed product von Neumann algebras for Bernoulli shifts cannot have relative property T. This is an operator algebra analogue of the theorem shown by Neuhauser and Cherix-Martin-Valette for discrete groups. Our proof is different from that for groups.
In the current paper, we generalize the "compact operator" part of the Voiculescu's non-commutative Weyl-von Neumann theorem on approximate equivalence of unital $*$-homomorphisms of an commutative C$^*$ algebra $\mathcal{A}$ into a semifinite von Neumann algebra. A result of D. Hadwin for approximate summands of representations into a finite von Neumann factor $\mathcal{R}$ is also extended.
We study some properies of $Z^{*}$ algebras, thos C^* algebra which all positive elements are zero divisors. We show by means of an example that an extension of a Z* algebra by a Z* algebra is not necessarily Z* algebra. However we prove that an extension of a non Z* algebra by a non Z* algebra is again a Z^* algebra. As an application of our methods, we prove that evey compact subset of the positive cones of a C* algebra has an upper bound in the algebra.
We show that the identity is the sum of two commutators in the algebra of all operators affiliated with a von Neumann algebra of type II$_1$, settling a question, in the negative, that had puzzled a number of us.
Using Effros-Handelman-Shen theorem and Elliott's classification theorem of AF algebras, we show that there exists a unital simple AF algebra A with unique trace such that $A\otimes \mathbb{K}$ admits no trace scaling action of the fundamental group of A.
In this mostly expository note, we revisit the Künneth theorem in $K$-theory of nonnuclear C*-algebras. We show that, using examples considered by Skandalis, there are algebras satisfying the Künneth theorem for the minimal tensor product but not for the maximal tensor product and vice versa.
In the sequel we establish the Banach Principle for semifinite JW-algebras without direct summand of type I sub 2, which extends the recent results of Chilin and Litvinov on the Banach Principle for semifinite von Neumann algebras to the case of JW-algebras.
We survey the results on linear local and 2-local homomorphisms and zero products preserving operators between C$^*$-algebras, and we incorporate some new precise observations and results to prove that every bounded linear 2-local homomorphism between C$^*$-algebras is a homomorphism. Consequently, every linear 2-local $^*$-homomorphism between C$^*$-algebras is a $^*$-homomorphism.
In the present note we show that if A is a locally C*-algebra, and I and J are closed two-sided ideals in A, then the positive part of (I+J) is equal to the sum of positive parts of I and J.
We study qualitative properties of the group von Neumann algebra of a Baumslag-Solitar group. Namely, we prove that, in the non-amenable and {ICC} case, the associated ${\rm II}_1$ factor is prime, not solid, and does not have any Cartan subalgebra.
This is a graduate-level introduction to C*-algebras, Hilbert C*-modules, vector bundles, and induced representations of groups and C*-algebras, with applications to quantization theory, phase space localization, and configuration space localization. The reader is supposed to know elementary functional analysis and quantum mechanics.
