No label defined (Q4486482)

A \(C^*\)-algebra \(A\) is nuclear if and only if the identity map on \(A\) can be approximated by a net of completely positive contractions of the form \( A @>\psi_\lambda >> F_\lambda @>\varphi_\lambda >> A\) with finite dimension \(F_\lambda\). In some sense, completely positive contractions \((F_k, \psi_k, \varphi_k)\) can be thought of as some noncommutative analogue of open coverings of topological spaces. Imposing some conditions (in Section 3), the author of this thesis introduces the notion of completely positive rank (denoted by cpr) as a version of covering dimension in topology. The author studies some properties of c.p.r., namely \(\text{cpr}(A \oplus B) = \max (\text{cpr}(A), \text{cpr}(B))\), \(\text{cpr}(A/J) \leq \text{cpr}(A)\), \(\text{cpr}(\varprojlim A_k) \leq \inf \lim \text{cpr}(A_k)\), \(\text{cpr}(C_0(X) \otimes Mat_n(\mathbb C)) \leq \text{cpr}(C_0(X))\) (the equality holds for strong c.p.r., denoted by scpr). In Section 4 he characterizes the class of \(AF\)-algebras as algebras of c.p.r. 0. In Section 5 he also characterizes the class of \(C^*\)-algebras of c.p.r. 1. For continuous trace algebras he prove in Section 6 that \(\text{scpr}(A) \leq \dim \hat{A}\) and in the last section 7 the author compaires this version with the other ones of noncommutative covering dimension such as the stable rank introduced by \textit{M. A. Rieffel} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 46, 301-333 (1983; Zbl 0533.46046)], and the real rank due to \textit{L. G. Brown} and \textit{G. K. Pedersen} [J. Funct. Anal. 99, No. 1, 131-149 (1991; Zbl 0776.46026)].