Nuclearity of semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebras and the connection to amenability (Q2437423): Difference between revisions

In this paper, the author continues his formidable study of \(C^\ast\)-algebras associated with semigroups. While there is a canonical reduced version, namely, the \(C^\ast\)-algebra generated by the left regular representation of the (left cancellative) semigroup, it is not so easy to find a good full version of semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebras, given by generators and relations, which could be viewed as the analogue of full group \(C^\ast\)-algebras. A. Nica defined the full semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebras using not only the obvious relations but also additional ones reflecting the (right) ideal structure of the semigroup. In general, it turns out that the full semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebras still have good properties. For instance, it was shown by the author and by M.\,D. Norling that they are well-suited for studying amenability of semigroups. However, amenability is a strong assumption which interesting examples fail to have. Many authors have studied the question when the left regular representation from the full to the reduced semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebra is faithful, and they described induced ideals of semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebras. However, the question when semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebras are nuclear was left untouched, and the connection between nuclearity and faithfulness of the left regular representation remained mysterious. A closely related topic is the theory of semigroup crossed products (by endomorphisms). One of the most important ideas in the analysis of semigroup crossed products is the idea of dilation. This means that questions about semigroup crossed products translate into questions about group crossed products which have already been intensively studied. However, this dilation theory only works for left Ore semigroups, and the question remains what to do for more general semigroups. For a subsemigroup \(P\) of a group \(G\), the author shows that under two conditions, the full and reduced semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebras of \(P\) embed as full corners into full and reduced crossed products by \(G\). The two conditions are that the constructible right ideals of \(P\) are independent and that \(P\subseteq G\) satisfies the so-called Toeplitz condition. It is shown that this condition is satisfied in typical examples. In particular, it holds for positive cones in quasi-lattice ordered groups and left Ore semigroups. As an application, the author gives equivalent characterizations for nuclearity of semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebras. For instance, he shows the connection between nuclearity and amenability of the group action, and proves that, if the semigroup \(C^\ast\)-algebra is nuclear, then the corresponding left regular representation is faithful. In addition, he is able to use his results to extend existing results about induced ideals and boundary actions from the quasi-lattice ordered case to the present, more general setting. This leads to a unified approach to specific constructions such as Cuntz algebras or ring \(C^\ast\)-algebras. As a final application, the author obtains a general explanation why these examples are UCT Kirchberg algebras.