A left ideal on any C*-algebra is an example of an operator algebra with a right contractive approximate indentiy (r.c.a.i.). Indeed, left ideal in C*-algebras may be charcterized as the class of such operator algebras, which happen also to be triple systems. Conversely, we show here and in a sequel to this paper, that operator algebras with r.c.a.i. shoulod be studied in terms of a certain let ideal of a C*-algebra. We study left ideals from the perspective of ‘Hamana theory’ and using the multiplier algebras of an operator space studied elsewhere by the author. More generally, we develop some general theory for operator algebras which have a 1-sided identity or approzimate indentity, including a Banach-Stone theorem for these algebras, and an analysis of the ‘multiplier operator algebra’.

We give a formula for the Dixmier-Douady class of a continuous-trace groupoid crossed product that arises from an action of a locally trivial, proper, principal groupoid on a bundle of elementary C*-algebras that satisfies Fell's condition.

Let ℳ be a semi-finite von Neumann algebra equipped with a faithful normal trace τ. We prove a Kadec-Pelczyński type dichotomy principle for subspaces of symmetric space of measurable operators of Rademacher type 2. We study subspace structures of non-commutative Lorentz spaces Lp, q, (ℳ, τ), extending some results of Carothers and Dilworth to the non-commutative settings. In particular, we show that, under natural conditions on indices, ℓp cannot be embedded into Lp, q (ℳ, τ). As applications, we prove that for 0 < p < ∞ with p ≠ 2, ℓp cannot be strongly embedded into Lp(ℳ, τ). This provides a non-commutative extension of a result of Kalton for 0 < p < 1 and a result of Rosenthal for 1 ≦ p < 2 on Lp [0, 1].

The first purpose of this paper is to give a tensor product formula of the characteristic invariant and modular invariant for a tensor product action of a discrete group G on AFD factors. The second purpose is to describe a characteristic invariant and modular invariant of the extended action to a crossed product in terms of the original invariants.

The notions of limits and colimits are studied in the category of C*-algebras. It is shown that limits and colimits of diagrams of C*-algebras are stable under tensor product by a fixed C*-algebra, and crossed product by a locally compact group.

We show that the left regular representation of a countably infinite (discrete) group admits no finite-dimensional invariant subspaces. We also discuss a consequence of this fact, and the reason for our interest in this statement.

We then formally state, as a ‘conjecture’, a possible generalisation of the above statement to the context of fusion algebras. We prove the validity of this conjecture in the case of the fusion algebra arising from the dual of a compact Lie group.

We finally show, by example, that our conjecture is false as stated, and raise the question of whether there is a ‘good’ class of fusion algebras, which contains (a) the two ‘good classes’ discussed above, namely, discrete groups and compact group duals, and (b) only contains fusion algebras for which the conjecture is valid.

We construct irreducible unitary representations of a finitely generated free group which are weakly contained in the left regular representation and in which a given linear combination of the generators has an eigenvalue. When the eigenvalue is specified, we conjecture that there is only one such representation. The representation we have found is described explicitly (modulo inversion of a certain rational map on Euclidean space) in terms of a positive definite function, and also by means of a quasi-invariant probability measure on the combinatorial boundary of the group.

Certain C*-algebras on generators and relations are associated to directed graphs. For a finite graph γ, C*-algebra is canonically isomorphic to Cuntz-Krieger algebra corresponding to the adjacency matrix of γ. It is shown that if a countably infinite graph γ is strongly connected, γ is simple and purely infinite.

The graph product of a family of groups lies somewhere between their direct and free products, with the graph determining which pairs of groups commute. We show that the graph product of quasi-lattice ordered groups is quasi-lattice ordered, and, when the underlying groups are amenable, that it satisfies Nica's amenability condition for quasi-lattice orders. The associated Toeplitz algebras have a universal property, and their representations are faithful if the generating isometries satisfy a joint properness condition. When applied to right-angled Artin groups this yields a uniqueness theorem for the C*-algebra generated by a collection of isometries such that any two of them either *-commute or else have orthogonal ranges. The analogous result fails to hold for the nonabelian Artin groups of finite type considered by Brieskorn and Saito, and Deligne.

In this paper we define and study a generalized Drazin inverse xD for ring elements x, and give a characterization of elements a, b for which aaD = bbD. We apply our results to the study of EP elements in a ring with involution.

For a maximal coaction δ of a discrete group G on a C*-algebra A and a normal subgroup N of G, there are at least three natural A × G ×δ| N - A ×δ|1 G/N imprimitivity bimodules: Mansfield's bimodule ; the bimodule assembled by Ng from Green's imprimitivity bimodule and Katayama duality; and the bimodule assembled from and the crossed-product Mansfield bimodule . We show that all three of these are isomorphic, so that the corresponding inducing maps on representations are identical. This can be interpreted as saying that Mansfield and Green induction are inverses of one another ‘modulo Katayama duality’. These results pass to twisted coactions; dual results starting with an action are also given.

It is shown that a sequence of completely positive linear maps on a W*-algebra that converges pointwise in norm to the identity converges uniformly.

Groupoid actions on C*-bundles and inverse semigroup actions on C*-algebras are closely related when the groupoid is r-discrete.

A unital C*-algebra A is called extremally rich if the set of quasi-invertible elements A-1 ex (A)A-1 (= A-1q) is dense in A, where ex(A) is the set of extreme points in the closed unit ball A1 of A. In [7, 8] Brown and Pedersen introduced this notion and showed that A is extremally rich if and only if conv(ex(A)) = A1. Any unital simple C*-algebra with extremal richness is either purely infinite or has stable rank one (sr(A) = 1). In this note we investigate the extremal richness of C*-crossed products of extremally rich C*-algebras by finite groups. It is shown that if A is purely infinite simple and unital then A xα, G is extremally rich for any finite group G. But this is not true in general when G is an infinite discrete group. If A is simple with sr(A) =, and has the SP-property, then it is shown that any crossed product A xαG by a finite abelian group G has cancellation. Moreover if this crossed product has real rank zero, it has stable rank one and hence is extremally rich.

We present the definition of crossed products of Hilbert C*-bimodules by Hilbert bundles with commuting finite group actions and finite dimensional fibers. This is a general construction containing the bundle construction and crossed products of Hilbert C*-bimodule by finite groups. We also study the structure of endomorphism algebras of the tensor products of bimodules. We also define the multiple crossed products using three bimodules containing more than 2 bundles and show the associativity law. Moreover, we present some examples of crossed product bimodules easily computed by our method.

The recently developed theory of partial actions of discrete groups on C*-algebras is extended. A related concept of actions of inverse semigroups on C*-algebras is defined, including covariant representations and crossed products. The main result is that every partial crossed product is a crossed product by a semigroup action.

We investigate the invariant subspace structure of subalgebras of groupoid C*-algebras that are determined by automorphism groups implemented by cocycles on the groupoids. The invariant subspace structure is intimately tied to the asymptotic behavior of the cocycle.

In this paper, we study the structure of certain conditional expectation on crossed product C*-algebra. In particular, we prove that the index of a conditional expectation E: B → A is finite if and only if the index of the induced expectation from B ⋊ G onto A ⋊ G is finite where G is a discrete group acting on B.

Any unital *-endomorphism of a type II1-factor is implemented by isometries of a Cuntz algebra outside the factor. If the Jones index of the range of the *-endomorphism is an integer and the algebras act on the standard space, the Jones index must agree with the number of the generators of the Cuntz algebra. We also study (outer) conjugacy of *-endomorphisms using Cuntz algebras.

Discrete C*-coactions are shown to be equivalent to discrete C* -algebraic bundles. Simplicity, primeness, liminality, postliminality, and nuclearity are related to the fixed point algebra and the cocrossed product. Ergodic, and more generally homogeneous, C*-coactions are characterized.