Semicrossed products of \(C^*\)-algebras and their \(C^*\)-envelopes (Q327591)

The author undertakes a study of possibly non-selfadjoint operator algebras, also called semicrossed products, associated to a dynamical system consisting of a \(C^*\)-algebra \(\mathcal{C}\) and a \(*\)-homomorphism \(\alpha:\mathcal{C} \to \mathcal{C}\) with a view towards explaining common features but also, when relevant, some differences. The common thread in this study is the identification of the \(C^*\)-envelope of each type of semicrossed products that arises. The author fixes the covariance relation of the type ``intertwines'', for which a left and a right version occur. Thus, for a representation \(\pi\) of \(\mathcal{C}\) on a Hilbert space \(H\) and a bounded operator \(V\) on \(H\), left covariance means \(\pi(c)V=V\pi(\alpha(c))\) for all \(c\in \mathcal{C}\). Right covariance means \(V\pi(c)=\pi(\alpha(c))V\) for all \(c\in \mathcal{C}\). Different flavours of the crossed product are then of interest by considering the cases that \(V\) is a contraction, an isometry, a co-isometry or a unitary. The main finding in the paper is that the \(C^*\)-envelope of any such semicrossed product is a full corner in an (ordinary) group crossed product. Applications are given to the question of minimality of the dynamical system (in the sense of absence of non-trivial invariant ideals): this is equivalent to absence of non-trivial Fourier invariant ideals in the \(C^*\)-envelope. Further, for a minimal dynamical system, all four semicrossed products of interest are completely isometrically isomorphic. In the case \(\mathcal{C}=C(X)\) for a compact Hausdorff space \(X\), minimality is equivalent to simplicity of the \(C^*\)-envelope if \(X\) is infinite.