Related papers: $C^*$-simplicity, confined subalgebras, and operat…
A discrete group is said to be C*-simple if its reduced C*-algebra is simple, and is said to have the unique trace property if its reduced C*-algebra has a unique tracial state. A dynamical characterization of C*-simplicity was recently…
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…
In the 1970s Alain Connes identified the appropriate notion of amenabilty for von Neumann algebras, and used it to obtain a deep internal finite dimensional approximation structure for these algebras. This structure is exactly what is…
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…
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 prove that the C*-algebra of a second-countable, \'etale, amenable groupoid is simple if and only if the groupoid is topologically principal and minimal. We also show that if G has totally disconnected unit space, then the associated…
In this paper we explore a generic notion of superrigidity for von Neumann algebras $L(G)$ and reduced $C^*$-algebras $C^*_r(G)$ associated with countable discrete groups $G$. This allows us to classify these algebras for various new…
Following Robert's [26], we study the structure of unitary groups and groups of approximately inner automorphisms of unital $C^*$-algebras, taking advantage of the former being Banach-Lie groups. For a given unital $C^*$-algebra $A$, we…
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…
We derive faithful inclusions of C*-algebras from a coend-type construction in unitary tensor categories. This gives rise to different potential notions of discreteness for an inclusion in the non-irreducible case, and provides a unified…
We study uniformly recurrent subgroups (URS) introduced by Glasner and Weiss \cite{GW}. Answering their query we show that any URS $Z$ of a finitely generated group is the stability system of a minimal $Z$-proper action. We also show that…
An algebra is said to be quasi-directly finite when any left-invertible element in its unitization is automatically right-invertible. It is an old observation of Kaplansky that the von Neumann algebra of a discrete group has this property;…
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…
An open question, raised independently by several authors, asks if a closed amenable subalgebra of ${\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})$ must be similar to an amenable C*-algebra; the question remains open even for singly-generated algebras. In this…
An example is given of a simple, unital C*-algebra which contains an infinite and a non-zero finite projection. This C*-algebra is also an example of an infinite simple C*-algebra which is not purely infinite. A corner of this C*-algebra is…
We prove a uniqueness theorem and give a characterization of simplicity for Steinberg algebras associated to non-Hausdorff ample groupoids. We also prove a uniqueness theorem and give a characterization of simplicity for the C*-algebra…
It is shown that if A is a separable, exact C*-algebra which satisfies the Universal Coefficient Theorem (UCT) and has a faithful, amenable trace, then A admits a trace-preserving embedding into a simple, unital AF-algebra with unique…
We say that a contractive Hilbert space operator is universal if there is a natural surjection from its generated C*-algebra to the C*-algebra generated by any other contraction. A universal contraction may be irreducible or a direct sum of…
We investigate the normal subgroups of the groups of invertibles and unitaries in the connected component of the identity. By relating normal subgroups to closed two-sided ideals we obtain a "sandwich condition" describing all the closed…