Metric completions of ordered groups and 𝐾₀ of exchange rings (Q4382950)

The Grothendieck group \(K_0\) of a ring \(R\) possesses (as does any pre-ordered abelian group with an order-unit) a natural representation \(\Phi\) into the space \(\text{Aff} S(K_0(R),[R])\) of affine continuous real functions on the associated state space \(S(K_0(R),[R])\). The author proves that for any exchange ring \(R\) (i.e., any ring which as a module over itself satisfies the Crawley-Jónsson exchange property [cf. \textit{R. B. Warfield jun.}, Math. Ann. 199, 31-36 (1972; Zbl 0238.16024)]), the closure of the image of \(\Phi\) is the ``expected'' subgroup of \(\text{Aff} S(K_0(R),[R])\), consisting of those functions whose value on any discrete extremal state \(s\) lies in \(s(K_0(R))\). In particular, this closure is shown to be an archimedean, norm-complete dimension group, and it coincides with \(\text{Aff} S(K_0(R),[R])\) if and only if \(R\) has no nonzero artinian homomorphic images. The first two results are far-reaching extensions of corresponding theorems of \textit{D. E. Handelman} and the reviewer [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 29, 861-895 (1980; Zbl 0455.06012)], which applied only to unperforated unit-regular rings and approximately finite-dimensional (AF) C*-algebras, and they answer several open questions posed in the reviewer's book [Partially ordered Abelian groups with interpolation (1986; Zbl 0589.06008)]. The third result had been proved for regular rings by the author [Commun. Algebra 22, 707-719 (1994; Zbl 0801.16006)]. The methods of Handelman and the reviewer, at the level of ordered groups, relied on unperforated groups satisfying the Riesz interpolation property. However, neither of these properties holds in general. To overcome these obstacles, the author introduces an asymptotic form of Riesz interpolation (errors being measured by an order-unit norm), from which he obtains asymptotic versions of the unperforated and archimedean conditions, and uses these tools to prove his main theorem. He then shows that \(K_0\) of any exchange ring enjoys asymptotic interpolation. That the results fully generalize the previous cases follows from, e.g., the standard fact that all regular rings are exchange rings. Applications to a much wider class of C*-algebras than the AF algebras follow from a recent theorem of \textit{P. Ara, K. C. O'Meara}, the author, and the reviewer stating that all C*-algebras of real rank zero are exchange rings [``Separative cancellation for projective modules over exchange rings'', Isr. J. Math. 105, 105-138 (1998)]. In the final sections of the paper, the author derives some approximate forms of cancellation for projective modules and projections. For instance, if \(p\) and \(q\) are projections in a unital C*-algebra \(A\) of real rank zero, and if \(\tau(p)\leq \tau(q)\) for every quasitrace \(\tau\) on \(A\), then given \(\epsilon >0\) there exist orthogonal decompositions \(p= p_1\oplus p_2\) and \(q= q_1\oplus q_2\) such that \(p_1\sim q_1\) and \(\tau(p_2) <\epsilon\) for all quasitraces \(\tau\). This provides an ``approximate'' solution to the second of \textit{B. Blackadar}'s Fundamental Comparability Questions [in: Operator algebras and applications, Vol. 1, Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 135, 21-54 (1988; Zbl 0706.46043)].