Completeness of the isomorphism problem for separable \(C^\ast\)-algebras (Q295800)

[The following review is substantially extracted from the author's summary and introduction.] This paper studies the descriptive set-theoretical complexity of the isomorphism problem for separable \(C^\ast\)-algebras. Answering a famous question raised by Farah et al. (in its turn strictly connected with a long-standing conjecture posed by Gao, Hjorth and Kechris), the author proves that the isomorphism problem arising for separable (simple, AI) \(C^\ast\)-algebras is complete in the class of orbit equivalence relations. This means that any isomorphism problem arising from a continuous action of a separable completely metrizable group can be reduced to the isomorphism of simple, separable AI \(C^\ast\)-algebras. The paper under review is organized as follows. In Section~2, some basic facts from convex analysis and Choquet's theory are recalled. In Section~3, the author recalls and slightly strengthens the results of Clemens, Gao and Kechris on the isometry of separable metric spaces. Section~4 contains some elementary back-and-forth constructions for building affine homeomorphisms. The \(S\)-extension construction appears in Section~5. Sections 6 and 7 form a preparation for a coding construction of metrics. The main construction (i.e., coding a metric into the affine structure of a simplex, thus leading to the complete proof of the main result of the paper) appears in Section~8. Finally, Section~9 contains some concluding remarks and questions.