The Muhly-Renault-Williams theorem for Lie groupoids and its classical counterpart (Q5943724)

A theorem of Muhly-Renault-Williams states that if two locally compact groupoids with Haar systems are Morita equivalent, then their associated convolution \(C^*\)-algebras are strongly Morita equivalent [\textit{P. Muhly, J. Renault} and \textit{D. Williams}, J. Oper. Theory 17, 3-22 (1987; Zbl 0645.46040)]. The proof of this result consists of two steps: First, one sets up a pre-equivalence Hilbert bimodule between \(C^*(G,\lambda)\) and \(C^*(H,\mu)\), given a \(G-H\) equivalence bibundle \(M\); second, one shows that this bimodule can be completed. Since any Lie groupoid posseses a Haar system [\textit{N. P. Landsman}, Mathematical topics between classical and quantum mechanics, Springer Monographs in Mathematics, New York (1999; Zbl 0923.00008)], the above result holds in particular for Lie groupoids. Nonetheless, the author gives a new proof of the Muhly-Renault-Williams theorem for Lie groupoids, replacing the first step of the proof of the locally compact case by purely differential geometric arguments. But, as the author says, since taking completions necessarily abandons the smooth setting, it is doubtful that the final part of the proof can be modified in the same way. The second part of the paper is devoted to prove a `classical' analogue of the Muhly-Renault-Williams for Lie groupoids, namely, a counterpart of it in Poisson geometry: if two Morita equivalent Lie groupoids are \(s\)-connected and \(s\)-simply connected, then their associated Poisson manifolds (that is to say, the dual bundles of their Lie algebroids) are Morita equivalent. The proof relies in the construction of the pullback of the action of a Lie groupoid \(G\) on a manifold \(M\); this is an action of the symplectic groupoid \(T^*G\) on the cotangent bundle \(T^*M\). This construction also clarifies the definition of \(T^*G\) itself.