Related papers: $C^*$-simplicity for groups with non-elementary co…

A group is said to be C*-simple if its reduced C*-algebra is simple. We establish an intrinsic (group-theoretic) characterization of groups with this property. Specifically, we prove that a discrete group is C*-simple if and only if it has…

A countable group is C*-simple if its reduced C*-algebra is simple. It is well known that C*-simplicity implies that the amenable radical of the group must be trivial. We show that the converse does not hold by constructing explicit…

A countable group is C*-simple if its reduced C*-algebra is a simple algebra. Since Powers recognised in 1975 that non-abelian free groups are C*-simple, large classes of groups which appear naturally in geometry have been identified,…

In this article we initiate research on locally compact C*-simple groups. We first show that every C*-simple group must be totally disconnected. Then we study C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras associated with certain groups acting on…

The reduced C*-algebra of a countable linear group G is shown to be simple if and only if G has no nontrivial normal amenable subgroups. Moreover, these conditions are shown to be equivalent to the uniqueness of tracial state on the…

We characterize $C^*$-simplicity for countable groups by means of the following dichotomy. If a group is $C^*$-simple, then the action on the Poisson boundary is essentially free for a generic measure on the group. If a group is not…

We introduce the notion of confined subalgebras in the context of the group von Neumann algebra. We also define Uniformly Recurrent States -- an operator-algebraic analog of Uniformly Recurrent Subgroups. Using this framework, we show that…

We give the first examples of (non-amenable group) amenable actions on stably finite simple C*-algebras. More precisely, we give such actions for any countable group in an explicit way. The main ingredients of our construction are the full…

We characterize relatively hyperbolic groups whose reduced $C^*$-algebra is simple as those, which have no non-trivial finite normal subgroups.

Recently Raum has given the first examples of locally compact non-discrete groups with the simple reduced group C*-algebra, answering a question of de la Harpe. Here we construct such groups whose proof relies only on results in the…

We give a number of examples of exotic actions of locally compact groups on separable nuclear C*-algebras. In particular, we give examples of the following: (1) Minimal effective actions of ${\mathbb{Z}}$ and $F_n$ on unital nonsimple prime…

We establish sufficient conditions for the C$^*$-simplicity of two classes of groups. The first class is that of groups acting on trees, such as amalgamated free products, HNN-extensions, and their normal subgroups; for example normal…

Suzuki recently gave constructions of non-discrete examples of locally compact C*-simple groups and Raum showed C*-simplicity of the relative profinite completions of the Baumslag-Solitar groups by using Suzuki's results. We extend this…

By combining R{\o}rdam's construction and the author's previous construction, we provide the first examples of amenable actions of non-amenable groups on simple separable nuclear C*-algebras that are neither stably finite nor purely…

We show that the $C^*$-algebra associated by Nekrashevych to a contracting self-similar group is simple if and only if the corresponding complex $\ast$-algebra is simple. We also improve on Steinberg and Szaka\'c's algorithm to determine if…

We show that for a large class of actions $\Gamma \curvearrowright \mathcal{A}$ of $C^*$-simple groups $\Gamma$ on unital $C^*$-algebras $\mathcal{A}$, including any non-faithful action of a hyperbolic group with trivial amenable radical,…

We prove that the reduced C*-algebras of centerless mapping class groups and outer automorphism groups of free groups are simple, as are the irreducible pure subgroups of mapping class groups and the analogous subgroups of outer…

In 2016, I solved a problem of de la Harpe in 2006: Is there a non-discrete C*-simple group? However the solution was not fully satisfactory as the provided C*-simple groups (and their operator algebras) are very close to discrete groups.…

We introduce two families of examples of groups acting on trees, one consisting of group amalgamations and the other consisting of HNN-extensions, motivated by the problems of $C^*$-simplicity and unique trace property. Moreover, we prove…

We study non-ascending HNN extensions acting on their Bass-Serre trees, and characterize C*-simplicity and the unique trace property by means of the kernel and quasi-kernels of the HNN extension in question. We also present a concrete…