C Algebras And Operator Theory

This book constitutes a first- or second-year graduate course in operator theory. It is a field that has great importance for other areas of mathematics and physics, such as algebraic topology, differential geometry, and quantum mechanics. It assumes a basic knowledge in functional analysis but no prior acquaintance with operator theory is required.

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the general theory of C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras. Beginning with the basics, the theory is developed through such topics as tensor products, nuclearity and exactness, crossed products, K-theory, and quasidiagonality. The presentation carefully and precisely explains the main features of each part of the theory of operator algebras; most important arguments are at least outlined and many are presented in full detail.

The subject of C*-algebras received a dramatic revitalization in the 1970s by the introduction of topological methods through the work of Brown, Douglas, and Fillmore on extensions of C*-algebras and Elliott's use of $K$-theory to provide a useful classification of AF algebras. These results were the beginning of a marvelous new set of tools for analyzing concrete C*-algebras. This book is an introductory graduate level text which presents the basics of the subject through a detailed analysis of several important classes of C*-algebras. The development of operator algebras in the last twenty years has been based on a careful study of these special classes. While there are many books on C*-algebras and operator algebras available, this is the first one to attempt to explain the real examples that researchers use to test their hypotheses. Topics include AF algebras, Bunce–Deddens and Cuntz algebras, the Toeplitz algebra, irrational rotation algebras, group C*-algebras, discrete crossed products, abelian C*-algebras (spectral theory and approximate unitary equivalence) and extensions. It also introduces many modern concepts and results in the subject such as real rank zero algebras, topological stable rank, quasidiagonality, and various new constructions. These notes were compiled during the author's participation in the special year on C*-algebras at The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences during the 1994–1995 academic year. The field of C*-algebras touches upon many other areas of mathematics such as group representations, dynamical systems, physics, $K$-theory, and topology. The variety of examples offered in this text expose the student to many of these connections. Graduate students with a solid course in functional analysis should be able to read this book. This should prepare them to read much of the current literature. This book is reasonably self-contained, and the author has provided results from other areas when necessary.

Mathematics for infinite dimensional objects is becoming more and more important today both in theory and application. Rings of operators, renamed von Neumann algebras by J. Dixmier, were first introduced by J. von Neumann fifty years ago, 1929, in [254] with his grand aim of giving a sound founda tion to mathematical sciences of infinite nature. J. von Neumann and his collaborator F. J. Murray laid down the foundation for this new field of mathematics, operator algebras, in a series of papers, [240], [241], [242], [257] and [259], during the period of the 1930s and early in the 1940s. In the introduction to this series of investigations, they stated Their solution 1 {to the problems of understanding rings of operators) seems to be essential for the further advance of abstract operator theory in Hilbert space under several aspects. First, the formal calculus with operator-rings leads to them. Second, our attempts to generalize the theory of unitary group-representations essentially beyond their classical frame have always been blocked by the unsolved questions connected with these problems. Third, various aspects of the quantum mechanical formalism suggest strongly the elucidation of this subject. Fourth, the knowledge obtained in these investigations gives an approach to a class of abstract algebras without a finite basis, which seems to differ essentially from all types hitherto investigated. Since then there has appeared a large volume of literature, and a great deal of progress has been achieved by many mathematicians.

This book explores and highlights the fertile interaction between logic and operator algebras, which in recent years has led to the resolution of several long-standing open problems on C*-algebras. The interplay between logic and operator algebras (C*-algebras, in particular) is relatively young and the author is at the forefront of this interaction. The deep level of scholarship contained in these pages is evident and opens doors to operator algebraists interested in learning about the set-theoretic methods relevant to their field, as well as to set-theorists interested in expanding their view to the non-commutative realm of operator algebras. Enough background is included from both subjects to make the book a convenient, self-contained source for students. A fair number of the exercises form an integral part of the text. They are chosen to widen and deepen the material from the corresponding chapters. Some other exercises serve as a warmup for the latter chapters.

This book provides a very elementary introduction to K-theory for C*-algebras, and is ideal for beginning graduate students.

This book consists of invited survey articles and research papers in the scientific areas of the “International Workshop on Operator Algebras, Operator Theory and Applications,” which was held in Lisbon in July 2016. Reflecting recent developments in the field of algebras of operators, operator theory and matrix theory, it particularly focuses on groupoid algebras and Fredholm conditions, algebras of approximation sequences, C* algebras of convolution type operators, index theorems, spectrum and numerical range of operators, extreme supercharacters of infinite groups, quantum dynamics and operator algebras, and inverse eigenvalue problems. Establishing bridges between the three related areas of operator algebras, operator theory, and matrix theory, the book is aimed at researchers and graduate students who use results from these areas.

Many problems in operator theory lead to the consideration ofoperator equa tions, either directly or via some reformulation. More often than not, how ever, the underlying space is too 'small' to contain solutions of these equa tions and thus it has to be 'enlarged' in some way. The Berberian-Quigley enlargement of a Banach space, which allows one to convert approximate into genuine eigenvectors, serves as a classical example. In the theory of operator algebras, a C*-algebra A that turns out to be small in this sense tradition ally is enlarged to its (universal) enveloping von Neumann algebra A". This works well since von Neumann algebras are in many respects richer and, from the Banach space point of view, A" is nothing other than the second dual space of A. Among the numerous fruitful applications of this principle is the well-known Kadison-Sakai theorem ensuring that every derivation 8 on a C*-algebra A becomes inner in A", though 8 may not be inner in A. The transition from A to A" however is not an algebraic one (and cannot be since it is well known that the property of being a von Neumann algebra cannot be described purely algebraically). Hence, ifthe C*-algebra A is small in an algebraic sense, say simple, it may be inappropriate to move on to A". In such a situation, A is typically enlarged by its multiplier algebra M(A).