Morita enveloping Fell bundles (Q2422780)

The authors refine the traditional arts of unravelling the structures hidden in Fell bundles (over groups), isomorphic to due products by group actions on relevant \(C^*\)-algebras, and, vice versa, of transforming the study of group actions on \(C^*\)-algebras into results on the corresponding Fell bundles. The concept of Morita equivalence between (partial) actions carries over to the realm of Fell bundles but previous advances of other scholars mostly referred to saturated bundles or discrete groups. Deep connections with preceding investigations are elucidated in the paper's Introduction. In particular, extending the analysis by \textit{F. Abadie} [J. Funct. Anal. 197, No. 1, 14--67 (2003; Zbl 1036.46037)], for any Fell bundle \(\mathcal{B}\) based on an l.c. group \(G\), the notion of Morita enveloping bundle is introduced. The latter can be realized as a semidirect product bundle of a unique, up to Morita equivalence, global action of \(G\). Following \textit{A. Buss} et al. [Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 56, No. 2, 387--426 (2013; Zbl 1276.46055)], by viewing each bundle fiber as a Hilbert bimodule over the unit fiber \(C^*\)-algebra \(B_e\), saturated Fell bundles can be treated as actions of the basic group in the 2-category of \(C^*\)-correspondences. Thus a saturated (resp. nonsaturated) Fell bundle is viewed as (partial) action of \(G\) by (partial) equivalences. The general notion of equivalence between Fell bundles, see [\textit{F. Abadie} and \textit{D. Ferraro}, J. Oper. Theory 81, No. 2, 273--319 (2019; Zbl 1438.46066)], is widely exploited in the present paper and called weak equivalence to distinguish from the strong equivalence notion proposed here, also rooting in the mentioned work of F.~Abadie. For saturated bundles these concepts coincide, extending the notion of equivalence between global actions. Every Fell bundle turns weakly equivalent to that associated to global action. It is demonstrated that an arbitrary Fell bundle is strongly equivalent to a semidirect product bundle for a partial action. Much attention is paid to different characterizations of these equivalences in terms of arising (co)actions on the \(C^*\)-algebras of kernels, on generalized compact operators affiliated with bundles and on the cross-sectional algebras. This applies to studying the action of \(G\) associated with \(\mathcal{B}\) on the spectrum of \(B_e\). The authors also translate into the context of Fell bundles some results of [\textit{C. Anantharaman-Delaroche}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 354, No. 10, 4153--4178 (2002; Zbl 1035.46039)] on amenability and nuclearity of crossed products.