The small projections property of \(C^\ast\)-algebras (Q1746696)

A \(C^\ast\)-algebra \(A\) is called a Rickart \(C^\ast\)-algebra if the left annihilator of every element is of the form \(Ap\), for some projection \(p\in A\). The authors give the following characterization: Theorem 2.4. \(A\) is a Rickart \(C^\ast\)-algebra if and only if the closure of every \(\sigma\)-open projection in \(A^{**}\) is open. This result is a non-commutative analogue of the topological characterization of abelian Rickart \(C^\ast\)-algebras (an abelian \(C^\ast\)-algebra \(A\) is a Rickart \(C^\ast\)-algebra if and only if \(\mathrm{Prim}(A)\), the primitive spectrum of \(A\), satisfies that the closure of every open \(F_\sigma\) set is open). Similarly, the authors obtain a non-commutative topological charaterization of the small projections (SP) property: Theorem 2.1. A unital \(C^\ast\)-algebra \(A\) has (SP) if and only if every non-zero open projection in \(A^{**}\) dominates a non-zero projection in \(A\). The characterization in the commutative case: the commutative algebra \(A\) has (SP) if and only if every non-empty open set in \(\mathrm{Prim}(A)\) contains a non-empty compact open set. Next, they examine the (SP) property in \(AW^*\)-algebras and continuous field \(C^\ast\)-algebras. They prove: Theorem 3.6. A unital C\(^* \)-algebra \(A\) is \(AW^*\) if and only if \(A\) has (SP) and the set of projections in \(A\) is a complete lattice.