Hereditary \(C^\ast\)-subalgebra lattices (Q887300)

Let \(A\) be a \(C^\ast\)-algebra and \({\mathcal H}(A)\) the partially ordered set, shortly poset, of hereditary subalgebras (order = inclusion) of \(A\). In this paper, the order properties of \({\mathcal H}(A)\) are extensively studied, and remarkably several relevant algebraic properties of \(A\) are shown to be derived from the structure of the poset \({\mathcal H}(A)\). Let us extract some examples. A poset \(\mathbb{P}\) is compact when \(S\subset\mathbb{P}\) with \(\bigvee S=1\) (\(\bigvee\) = supremum), implies that there exists a finite subset \(F\subset S\) such that \(\bigvee F=1\). Propostion 1. \(A\) is unital precisely when \({\mathcal H}(A)\) is compact. \(B\) and \(C\) in \({\mathcal H}(A)\) are strongly orthogonal (in symbols \(B\nabla C\)) when \(BAC=\{0\}\). Theorem 1. Let \(B,C \in{\mathcal H}(A)\); the following conditions are equivalent to \(B\nabla C\) (we extract three): {\parindent=6mm\begin{itemize}\item[(1)] \(B\lor C=B\oplus C\) \item[(2)] \(D=(B\lor D)\land (C\lor D) \text{ for all }D\in {\mathcal H}(A) \;(\land=\text{infimum})\) \item[(3)] \(B\land D=B\land(C\lor D) \text{ for all }D\in {\mathcal H}(A)\). \end{itemize}} Note that the second and third above are of order nature. Let \(\mathbb{P}\) be a poset. \(p\) is a \(\land\)-pseudocomplement of \(q\) in \(\mathbb{P}\) if \[ p=\lor\{r: q\land r=0\} \;\text{ and } \;p\land q=0. \] Denote by \[ B^\perp=\{a\in A: ba=0=ba^* \text{ for all } b\in B\} \] and \[ B^\nabla=\{a\in A: bAa=0 \text{ for all } b\in B\}. \] Theorem 3. If \(B\) is a \(\land\)-pseudocomplement of \(C\) in \({\mathcal H}(A)\), then \[ B=C^\perp=C^\nabla. \] And the following remarkable result: \(p\in\mathbb{P}\) is \(\lor\)-distributive if \[ p\land(q\lor r)=(p\land q)\lor(p\land r). \] Theorem 4. \(B\) is \(\lor\)-distributive in \({\mathcal H}(A)\) if and only if \(B\) is an ideal. The authors also study the \(*\)-ortholattice \[ {\mathcal P}^\perp(A)=\{ B^\perp: B \subset A\}. \] For instance, elements in \({\mathcal P}^\perp(A)\) which are ideals are characterized. Also, a program is indicated to obtain type decompositions of \(C^\ast\)-algebras, consistent with the type decompositions of von Neumann algebras, using the order structure of \({\mathcal P}^\perp(A)\).