Polar decomposition in algebraic \(\mathrm{K}\)-theory (Q6971103)

Let \(A\) be a unital C*-algebra. For each \(n \in \mathbb N\), denote by \(\mathrm{GL}_n(A)\) the group of invertible elements of \(\mathrm{M}_n(A)\), and denote the limit \(\mathrm{GL}_\infty(A)=\varinjlim \mathrm{GL}_n(A),\) where the connecting maps send \(a\) to \(a \oplus 1\). Similarly, one also considers the unitary group \(\mathrm{U}_n(A)\) of a matrix algebra over \(A\), and considers their limit \(\mathrm{U}_\infty(A)\).\N\NIn both cases, one considers the algebraic \(\mathrm{K}_1\)-groups: \N\[\N\mathrm{K}_1^{\mathrm{alg}}(A) = \mathrm{GL}_\infty(A)/\mathrm{D}\mathrm{GL}_\infty(A) \quad \mathrm{and} \quad \mathrm{K}_1^{\mathrm{alg, u}}(A) = \mathrm{U}_\infty(A)/\mathrm{D}\mathrm{U}_\infty(A),\N\]\Nwhere \(\mathrm{D}G\) denotes the subgroup generated by the commutators of \(G\). Since \(\mathrm{GL}_\infty(A)\) and \(\mathrm{U}_\infty(A)\) are also topological spaces, the algebraic \(\mathrm{K}_1\)-groups above can be smoothed into the following Hausdorffized algebraic \(\mathrm{K}_1\)-groups: \N\[\N\overline{\mathrm{K}}_1^{\mathrm{alg}}(A) = \mathrm{GL}_\infty(A)/\overline{\mathrm{D}\mathrm{GL}_\infty(A)} \quad \mathrm{and} \quad \overline{\mathrm{K}}_1^{\mathrm{alg, u}}(A) = \mathrm{U}_\infty(A)/\overline{\mathrm{D}\mathrm{U}_\infty(A)}.\N\]\NThe group \(\overline{\mathrm{K}}_1^{\mathrm{alg, u}}(A)\) plays an essential role in the classification of C*-algebras, in particular in the study of approximate unitary equivalence of the homomorphisms between C*-algebras.\N\NIn this paper, for a simple C*-algebra \(A\), the authors show that the group \(\overline{\mathrm{K}}_1^{\mathrm{alg}}(A)\) from the invertible elements actually is completely determined by the group \(\overline{\mathrm{K}}_1^{\mathrm{alg, u}}(A)\) from the unitaries together with the trace simplex of the C*-algebra. Indeed, there is a natural isomorphism (Theorem~3.15) \N\[\N\overline{\mathrm{K}}_1^{\mathrm{alg}}(A) \cong \overline{\mathrm{K}}_1^{\mathrm{alg, u}}(A) \oplus \mathrm{Aff}\, {T}(A).\N\]\NAs for the non-Hausdorffized case, if \(A\) has stable rank one, is pure, and if every \(2\)-quasitracial state on \(A\) is a trace (in particular, if \(A\) is finite, exact, and \(\mathcal Z\)-absorbing), then one has \N\[\N{\mathrm{K}}_1^{\mathrm{alg}}(A) \cong {\mathrm{K}}_1^{\mathrm{alg, u}}(A) \oplus \mathrm{Aff}\, {T}(A).\N\]\NThe non-stable analogues of the results above are also studied in the paper.