On characterizations of amenable \(\mathrm{C}^*\)-dynamical systems and new examples (Q2238224)

This article shows that some different possible definitions of amenability for actions of locally compact groups on C*-algebras are equivalent. These results are used to construct interesting examples of amenable actions on simple C*-algebras. Locally compact groups may act on measure spaces, locally compact spaces, on W*-algebras and C*-algebras. A group action on a von Neumann algebra is amenable if and only if the restriction of the action to the centre is amenable. This was first proven for discrete groups by Anantharaman-Delaroche and recently extended by Bearden-Crann to all locally compact groups. So amenability for actions on W*-algebras reduces to the commutative case. Therefore, it is remarkable that groups may act amenably on simple C*-algebras. There are several candidates how to define amenability for actions of locally compact groups on C*-algebras. Some implications among these concepts were only known under extra assumptions, such as for discrete groups or exact groups. This article proves these missing implications without such technical assumptions. The first main result is that the quasi-central approximation property is equivalent to the approximation property introduced by Exel and Ng. This is further shown to be equivalent to the existence of a \(G\)-conditional expectation from the von Neumann tensor product of \(L^\infty(G)\) with the centre of the bidual \(Z(A^{**})\) to \(Z(A^{**})\). This is remarkable because the induced \(G\)-action on \(A^{**}\) usually fails to be continuous. This also implies that restrictions of amenable actions to closed subgroups remain amenable. It is also shown that amenability is inherited by the induced action on a central sequence algebra provided the group is exact. These algebras play an important roles in some proofs of C*-algebra classification theorems. A remarkable theorem shows the following: given an action of a product \(G\times K\) on a C*-algebra~\(A\), where \(K\) is compact, \(G\) acts amenably on \(A\) if and only if it acts amenably on the fixed point subalgebra \(A^K\). Finally, the article constructs some interesting examples of amenable, outer actions on simple, nuclear, purely infinite C*-algebras. This uses a Toeplitz C*-algebra construction to replace a given action by an action on a simple C*-algebra with various extra properties. The same construction was recently introduced by the reviewer for rather different purposes, namely, to classify group actions up to equivariant KK-equivalence. For instance, the authors show that any second countable group with the Haagerup property acts amenably on the stable Cuntz algebra \(\mathcal{O}_\infty \otimes {\mathbb K}\) and that any countable free group acts amenably on \(\mathcal{O}_\infty\) itself.