\(M\)-ideals and quotients of subdiagonal algebras (Q1187768)

Let \(A\) be a closed not necessarily selfadjoint subalgebra of the \(C^*\)-algebra \(B\). A norm closed subspace \(J\) of \(A\) is said to be an \(M\)-ideal if there is a normed closed subspace \(F\) of the dual \(A^*\) of \(A\) such that \(A^*= F\oplus J^ \perp\) and \(\| f+ g\|= \| f\|+ \| g\|\) for \(f\in F\) and \(g\in J^ \perp\). The result of \textit{E. G. Effros} and the second author [Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 110, No. 4, 915-922 (1990; Zbl 0718.46020)] states that \(J\) is an \(M\)-ideal if and only if \(J\) has an approximate identity. The authors consider \(M\)-ideals \(J\) in \(\varepsilon\)-subdiagonal algebras \(A\) of the \(C^*\)-algebra \(B\). Here an \(\varepsilon\)-subdiagonal algebra \(A\) is a closed subalgebra for which there is a faithful conditional expectation \(\varepsilon\) on \(B\) such that \(\text{clos}(A+ A^*)= B\), \(\varepsilon\) is multiplicative on \(A\), \(\varepsilon(B)=A \cap A^*\), and \(A\cap A^*\) has an increasing positive approximate identity for \(A\). First, the authors show that a subalgebra need only contain a selfadjoint approximate identity in order for it to contain an increasing approximate identity. The authors prove that if \(D_ J= J\cap J^*\) contains a selfadjoint approximate identity for \(J\), then the algebra \(B_ J=\text{clos}(J+ J^*)\) is an ideal of \(B\) and \(A/J\) is completely isometrically isomorphic to \(B_ Q= (A+ B_ J)/B_ J\) in the quotient \(C^*\)-algebra \(B/B_ J\). If, in addition, the conditional expectation \(\varepsilon_ Q(b+ B_ J)=\varepsilon(b)+ B_ J\) of \(B/B_ J\) is faithful, then the sequence \(0\to D_ J\to A\cap A^*\to D_ Q\to 0\) is exact where \(D_ Q=B_ Q\cap B^*_ Q\). The authors apply this result to subdiagonal algebras \(A(P)\) of the groupoid \(C^*\)-algebra \(C^*(G,\sigma)\) with \(\sigma\) a continuous 2- cocycle of \(G^ 2\) into \(T\). Here \(P\) is a subset of \(G\) and \(A(P)\) is the set of elements supported in \(P\). The authors show that \(A(P)\) is an \(\varepsilon\)-subdiagonal algebra of \(C^*(G,\sigma)\) if and only if \(P\) is a total clopen preorder of \(G\) and in this case \(A(P)\) is a maximal \(\varepsilon\)-subdiagonal algebra of \(C^*(G,\sigma)\). For \(B\) a von Neumann algebra, \(A\) a weakly closed \(\varepsilon\)-subdiagonal algebra, they also show that the only \(\sigma\)-weakly closed \(M\)-ideals are given by \(pA\), where \(p\) is a central projection in \(B\). In the appendix, the authors show that \(C^*(G_ 0)\)-bimodules in \(C^*(G)\) (here the cocycle is trivial) can be written as \(A(P)\) for some open subset of \(G\).