We will consider coactions of discrete groups on C*-algebras and imitate some of the results about compact group actions on C*-algebras. In particular, the crossed product of a reduced coaction ∈ of a discrete amenable group G on A is liminal (respectively, postliminal) if and only if the fixed point algebra of ∈ is. Moreover, we will also consider ergodic coactions on C*-algebras.

We introduce a natural notion of full coactions of a locally compact group on a Hilbert C*-module, and associate each full coaction in a natural way to an ordinary coaction. We also introduce a natural notion of strong Morita equivalence of full coactions which is sufficient to ensure strong Morita equivalence of the corresponding crossed product C*-algebras.

We consider coactions of a locally compact group G on a C*-algebra A, and the associated crossed product C*-algebra A× G. Given a normal subgroup N of G, we seek to decompose A× G as an iterated crossed product (A× G/ N) × N, and introduce notions of twisted coaction and twisted crossed product which make this possible. We then prove a duality theorem for these twisted crossed products, and discuss how our results might be used, especially when N is abelian.

The Kasparov groups are extended to the setting of inverse limits of G-C*-algebras, where G is assumed to be a locally compact group. The K K-product and other important features of the theory are generalized to this setting.

Crossed products of C*-algebras by *-endomorphisms are defined in terms of a universal property for covariant representations implemented by families of isometries and some elementary properties of covariant representations and crossed products are obtained.

In this paper we prove algebraic generalizations of some results of C. J. K. Batty and A. B. Thaheem, concerned with the identity α + α−1 = β + β−1 where α and β are automorphisms of a C*-algebra. The main result asserts that if automorphisms α, β of a semiprime ring R satisfy α + α-1 = β + β−1 then there exist invariant ideals U1, U2 and U3 of R such that Ui ∩ Uj = 0, i ≠ j, U1 ⊕ U2 ⊕ U3 is an essential ideal, α = β on U1, α = β−1 on U2, and α2 = β2 = α−2 on U3. Furthermore, if the annihilator of any ideal in R is a direct summand (in particular, if R is a von Neumann algebra), then U1 ⊕ U2 ⊕ U3 = R.

We adapt the Toeplitz operator proof of Bott periodicity to give a short direct proof of Bott periodicity for the representable K-theory of σ-C*-algebras. We further show how the use of this proof and the right definitions simplifies the derivation of the basic properties of representable K-theory.

Takai duality for full C*-crossed products holds for twisted actions in the sense of Green and fails for coactions.

We present a symmetric version of a normed algebra of quotients for each ultraprime normed algebra. In addition, a C*-a1gebra of quotients of an arbitrary C*-a1gebra is introduced.

Let G = ⊕∞i=0Zp, where p is a prime, let s be the shift mapping the i th summand of G to the (i+1) st and let ω be a 2 cocycle on G with values in S1, for which ω (s(g), s(h)) = ω (g, h). If Ω (ej, ek) = Ω (ek, ej) whenever │j - k│ is sufficiently large, where ei is the generator of the i th summand of G, then it is shown that the twisted group C* -algebra C*(G, ω) is isomorphic to the UHF algebra UHF (p∞). An immediate consequence, by results of Bures and Yin, is the existence of infinitely many non-conjugate shifts on UHF (p∞).

Using various facts about principal bundles over a space, we give a unified treatment of several theorems about the structure of stable separable continuous-trace algebras, their automorphisms, and their K-theory. We also present a classification of real continuous-trace algebras from the same point of view.

Let ξ be a C*;-bundle over T with fibres {At}t∈A. Suppose that A is the C*-algebra of sections of ξ which vanish at infinity, and that (A, G, α) is a C*-dymanical system that, for each t ∈ T, the ideal It = {f ∈ A|f(t) =; 0} is G-invariant. If in addition, the stabiliser group of each P ∈ Prim(A) is amenable, then A ⋊αG is the section algebra of a C*-bundle with fibres {At ⋊αG}t∈T.

The above theorem may be used to prove a structure theorem for crossed products built from C*-dynamical systems (A, G, α) where the action of G on A is smooth. Assuming that the stabiliser groups are amenable, then A ⋊αG has a composition series such that each quotient is a section algebra of a C*-bundle where the fibres are of the form Aσ ⋊αG; moreover, the Aσ correspond to locally closed subsets of Prim(A), and G acts transitively on Prim(Aσ). In many cases, in particular when (G, A) is separable, the Aσ ⋊αG have been computed explicitly by other authors.

These results are actually proved for twisted C*dynamical systems.

Let G be a countable torsion free finitely generated nilpotent group. Then the Fourier transform can be considered as a map from the space of bounded degree 1 random operators to the Fourier algebra A(G). In this paper, we recover the matrix elements of a positive random variable from the corresponding positive definite function in A(G) for such a group.

Let α and β be *-automorphisms of a C*-algebra A such that α + α β + β-1. There exist invariant ideals I1I2 and I3 of A, with II ∩ I2 ∩ I3 = {O}, containing, respectively, the range ofβ − α, the range of β − α-1, and the union of the ranges of β2 − α2 and β2 − α-2. The induced actions on the quotient algebras give a decomposition of the system (A, α, β) into systems where β = α, β = α-2 and α2 = α-2.

If α and β are one-parameter groups of *-automorphisms such that α + α-1 = β + β−1, then the corresponding result is valid, and may be strengthened to assert that I1 ∩ I2 = {0}.

These results are analogues and extensions of similar results of A. B. Thaheem et al. for von Neumann algebras and commuting automorphisms.

We analyse the structure of a regular extension ℳ ⋊ γ, υQ of a von Neumann algebra ℳ by an action (modulo inner automorphisms) γ of a discrete group Q, and a nonabelian 2-cycle υ for γ, under the assumption that the “action” γ of Q is cocycle conjugate to an “action”, α which leaves globally invariant a cartan subalgebra of ℳ. we show that ℳ ⋊ γ, υQ is isomorphic with the algebra of the left regular projective representation of a certain discrete, non-principal groupoid ℜ V Q determined by the action of Q on the given cartan subalgebrs, where ℜ is the Takesaki relation associated to the pair (ℳ, ) we apply this description to give a decomposition of the regular representation of a group G into irreducibles, where G is a split extension of a type I group K by an abelian group Q, and work out the details of the author's earlier abstract plancherel theorem in the case when K is abelian.

For a doubly commuting n-tuple of unbounded normal operators in a Hilbert space the joint spectral measure can be constructed and its closed support described as the joint spectrum of the given n-tuple. The same is here shown for larger, possibly uncountable, families of operators.

Let (A, R, σ) be an abelian C*-dynamical system. Denote the generator of σ by δ0 and define A∞ = ∩n>1D (δ0n). Further define the Lipschitz algebra.

If δ is a *-derivation from A∞ into A½, then it follows that δ is closable, and its closure generates a strongly continuous one-parameter group of *-automorphisms of A. Related results for local dissipations are also discussed.

For any group G, we introduce the subset S(G) of elements g which are conjugate to for some positive integer k. We show that, for any bounded representation π of G any g in S(G), either π(g) = 1 or the spectrum of π(g) is the full unit circle in C. As a corollary, S(G) is in the kernel of any homomorphism from G to the unitary group of a post-liminal C*-algebra with finite composition series.

Next, for a topological group G, we consider the subset of elements approximately conjugate to 1, and we prove that it is contained in the kernel of any uniformly continuous bounded representation of G, and of any strongly continuous unitary representation in a finite von Neumann algebra.

We apply these results to prove triviality for a number of representations of isotropic simple algebraic groups defined over various fields.

The distance between two operator algebras acting on a Hilbert space H is defined to be the Hausdorff distance between their unit balls. We investigate the structural similarities between two close AW*-algebras A and B acting on a Hilbert space H. In particular, we prove that if A is of type I and separable, then A and B are *-isomorphic.

We construct a suitable representation of a C*-algebra that carries single elements to rank one operators. We also prove an abstract spectral theorem for compact elements in the algebra. This leads naturally to an abstract definition of Cp-classes of compact elements in the algebra.