Continuous fields of \(C^*\)-algebras over finite dimensional spaces (Q734833): Difference between revisions

If \(X\) is a compact Hausdorff space, then a \(C^{*}\)-algebra is called a \(C(X)\)-algebra if there is a nondegenerate homomorphism of \(C(X)\) into the center of the multiplier algebra \(M(A)\). This induces a natural fibering of \(A\) over \(X\): the fiber of \(A\) over \(x\) is the quotient \(A/I_{x}\), where \(I_{x}\) is the ideal of \(A\) generated by the image of the functions in \(C(X)\) vanishing at \(x\). In fact, \(A\) is the section algebra of an upper semicontinuous \(C^{*}\)-bundle \(\mathcal{A}\) over \(X\). (This observation goes back to Hofmann. A summary and further references can be found in Appendix~C of the reviewer's book [``Crossed product \(C^{*}\)-algebras'', AMS Surveys \& Monographs 134 (2007; Zbl 1119.46002)].) In fact, all the \(C(X)\)-algebras here turn out to be continuous fields and are the section algebras of continuous Banach bundles in the sense of Fell. Nevertheless, such bundles are rarely locally trivial in any meaningful way even when all the fibers are isomorphic. In this remarkable paper, the author considers \(C(X)\)-algebras where \(X\) is finite-dimensional and all the fibers are Kirchberg algebras; that is, each fiber is separable, simple, nuclear and purely infinite. The main results give conditions under which the associated bundles are either trivial or locally trivial. An illustrative example is the following. Suppose that \(X\) is finite-dimensional and that \(A\) is a separable unital \(C(X)\)-algebra such that \(A(x)\) is isomorphic to the same Cuntz algebra \(\mathcal{O}_{n}\) with \(n\geq2\). Then \(A\) is always locally trivial, and is trivial, that is, isomorphic to \(C(X)\otimes \mathcal{O}_{n}\) if \(n\) is either \(2\) or \(\infty\). In general, \(A\) is trivial if and only if \((n-1)[1_{A}]=0\) in \(K_{0}(A)\). (This result is a generalization of a result of the author with \textit{G.\,Elliott} in [Commun.\ Math.\ Phys.\ 274, No.\,3, 795--819 (2007; Zbl 1146.46037)]). The sample results mentioned above are a consequence of a much more general theory for \(C(X)\)-algebras whose fibres are simple \(KK\)-semiprojective algebras which is a class of \(C^{*}\)-algebras including all nuclear semiprojective \(C^{*}\)-algebras and all \(C^{*}\)-algebras which satisfy the UCT and have finitely generated \(K\)-theory. The author notes (``Added in proof'') that some of the results in this paper have been strengthened in a subsequent paper of his [J.~K-Theory 3, No.\,2, 205--219 (2009; Zbl 1173.46050)].