English

B(H) is not a twisted groupoid C*-algebra

Operator Algebras 2026-04-10 v2

Abstract

We show that B(H)B(H) for an infinite dimensional Hilbert space HH cannot be realized as the reduced twisted CC^*-algebra of any locally compact Hausdorff \'etale groupoid. The proof is based on the canonical conditional expectation Cr(G,Σ)C0(G(0))C_r^*(G,\Sigma)\to C_0(G^{(0)}) and a structural analysis of the resulting diagonal subalgebra inside B(H)B(H). We show that this diagonal must be an atomic abelian von Neumann algebra, and then exclude both possibilities for its spectrum. If the unit space is finite, one obtains a tracial state on Cr(G,Σ)C_r^*(G,\Sigma), which is impossible for B(H)B(H). If it is infinite, the groupoid structure forces a block-sparsity phenomenon for compactly supported sections, which is incompatible with B(H)B(H). This provides the first examples of CC^*-algebras that cannot be realized as reduced twisted \'etale groupoid CC^*-algebras.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.21946,
  title  = {B(H) is not a twisted groupoid C*-algebra},
  author = {Alcides Buss and Luiz Felipe Garcia and Tomás Pacheco},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.21946},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

10 pages, v2: minor revision; added note in the introduction acknowledging independent work by David Gao

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:33:16.925Z