A weak homotopy equivalence type result related to Kirchberg algebras (Q2043497)

A purely infinite separable simple nuclear C*-algebra is called a Kirchberg algebra. In the paper under review, the authors prove a weak homotopy type result concerning two topological groups associated to a unital Kirchberg algebra. Given such an algebra \(A\), we write \(A_{\flat}\) for the continuous asymptotic centralizer algebra \[ A_{\flat} = \left(C^b([0,1),A)/C_0([0,1),A)\right)\cap A' \] and write \(\mathrm{Aut}(A\otimes \mathbb{K})\) to denote the automorphism group of the stabilization \(A\otimes \mathbb{K}\) of \(A\). The group of unitaries in \(A_{\flat}\) is denoted by \(U(A_{\flat})\) and this is a topological group under the norm topology. Likewise, \(\mathrm{Aut}(A\otimes \mathbb{K})\) is a topological group when equipped with the point-norm topology. For each compact metrizable space \(X\), the authors construct a natural homomorphism \[ \Pi_{A,X} : [X,U(A_{\flat})] \to [X, \mathrm{Aut}(A\otimes \mathbb{K})] \] which is an isomorphism if \(X\) is a sphere. However, the map \(\Pi_{A,X}\) may not be induced by a continuous function, and thus is not a genuine weak homotopy equivalence. The proof relies on earlier work of \textit{M. Dadarlat} [J. Noncommut. Geom. 1, No. 1, 113--139 (2007; Zbl 1144.46047)] who proved that \(\pi_n(\mathrm{Aut}(A\otimes \mathbb{K}))\) is isomorphic to \(KK(A,S^{n+1}A)\), where \(S^kA\) denotes the \(k^{th}\) suspension of \(A\). The proof also uses a generalization of a homotopy theorem due to \textit{H. Nakamura} [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 20, No. 6, 1749--1765 (2000; Zbl 1085.46514)], which the authors prove in the Appendix. As an application of their results, the authors compute the K-theory groups of \(A_{\flat}\) and of the central sequence algebra \(A_{\omega}\).