Continuous fields of \(C^*\)-algebras arising from extensions of tensor \(C^*\)-categories (Q1874687)

The purpose of this paper is to present some aspects of the extension theory of strict tensor \(C^{\ast}\)-categories. The notion of extension of a given \(C^{\ast}\)-category \(\mathcal C\) by a \(C^{\ast}\)-algebra \(A\) is introduced and it is shown that the Doplicher-Roberts algebra associated to an object in the extension of a strict tensor \(C^{\ast}\)-category is a continuous field of Doplicher-Roberts algebras coming from the initial one. In the commutative case \(A=C(X)\), the objects of the extension category are interpreted as fiber bundles over \(X\) of objects belonging to the initial category and in the case of the category of the Hermitian vector bundles over \(X\) the general result implies that the Doplicher-Roberts algebra is a continuous field of Cuntz algebras. As an application of the abstract results Hilbert \(C^{\ast}\)-bimodules of the form \({\mathcal E} \otimes _{\mathcal Y} A\), where \({\mathcal Y}\) denotes the center of \(A\) and \({\mathcal E}\) is the module of sections of a vector bundle over \(spect ({\mathcal Y})\), are characterized in terms of properties of the Pimsner \(C^{\ast}\)-algebra associated to \({\mathcal E} \otimes _{\mathcal Y} A\).