Ranks of operators in simple \(C^{*}\)-algebras (Q984416)

Let \(A\) be a unital \(C^*\)-algebra and \(\tau: A \to \mathbb{C}\) be a tracial state. The rank of a positive element \(a \in A\) with respect to \(\tau\) is defined to be \(d_\tau(a)=\lim_{n\to\infty}\tau(a^{1/n})\). The rank function \(\iota(a)\) of \(a\) is a map from the tracial state space \(T(A)\) to \(\mathbb{R}^+\) defined by \(\iota(a)(\tau)=d_\tau(a)\). In the paper under review, the authors investigate the interesting problem ``what are the possible ranks of operators in a unital simple \(C^*\)-algebra?'' They prove that if \(A\) is a unital simple separable infinite-dimensional \(C^*\)-algebra with nonempty tracial state space \(T(A)\), the extreme boundary of \(T(A)\) is compact and of finite covering dimension and \(A\) has strict comparison of positive elements, then the range of \(\iota\) is equal to the set of extended real-valued functions which can be obtained as the pointwise supremum of an increasing sequence from the set of bounded, strictly positive, lower semicontinuous and affine functions on \(T(A)\). Combined with a result of Winter, they obtain \(\mathcal{Z}\oplus A \cong A\), whenever \(A\) moreover has locally finite decomposition rank. Here \(\mathcal{Z}\) is the Jiang-Su algebra.