Graphs, groupoids, and Cuntz-Krieger algebras (Q676206)

Each locally finite directed graph \(G\), having only finitely many edges in and out of each vertex (but which may have infinitely many vertices), is associated with a locally compact groupoid \({\mathcal G}\), whose unit space is the space of one-sided infinite paths in \(G\). It is then shown that the groupoid \(C^*\)-algebra \(C^*({\mathcal G})\) of \({\mathcal G}\) is the universal \(C^*\)-algebra generated by (possibly infinite) families of partial isometries satisfying Cuntz-Krieger relations determined by \(G\). The structure theory for groupoid \(C^*\)-algebras, as developed by Renault, is used to analyze the ideal structure of Cuntz-Krieger algebras, leading, in turn, to extensions of the results of Cuntz and Cuntz-Krieger to the case of infinite, locally finite \(\{0,1\}\)-matrices. By choosing a distinguished vertex \(*\), one obtains, as a reduction of \({\mathcal G}\) to the space of paths emanating from \(*\), another locally compact groupoid \(C^*({\mathcal G}(*))\). Under certain conditions, the \(C^*\)-algebras \(C^*({\mathcal G})\) and \(C^*({\mathcal G}(*))\) are Morita equivalent. Moreover, the algebra \(C^*({\mathcal G}(*))\) contains the \(C^*\)-algebra used by Doplicher and Roberts in their duality theory for compact groups.