Autor-Archive: hannesthiel

Contractibility of unitary groups of II-1 factors

Von | Oktober 7, 2020

Question: Let be a -factor. Is the unitary group contractible when equipped with the strong operator topology? Background/Motivation: By Kuiper’s theorem, if is an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, then the unitary group of the -factor is contractible in the norm topology. This was generalized by Breuer ​[1]​ to (certain) and von Neumann algebras, and eventually Brüning-Willgerodt… Weiterlesen »

Scottish Book Problem 166

Von | Oktober 7, 2020

This is one of the few problems from the Scottish book that are still open. In slightly modernized form, and correcting the typo (in the book, and should be switched in the last sentence) the problem is: Let be a topological manifold, and let be a continuous function. Let denote the subgroup of homeomorphisms that… Weiterlesen »

Scottish Book Problem 155

Von | Oktober 7, 2020

This is one of the few problems from the Scottish book that are still open. In modern terminology, the problem is: Let and be Banach spaces, and let be a bijective map with the following property: For every there exists such that for the sphere , the restriction is isometric. Does it follow that is… Weiterlesen »

Purely infinite rings and C*-algebras

Von | September 23, 2020

Question 1: If is a *-subalgebra of bounded linear operators on a separable Hilbert space such that is purely infinite as a ring, is the norm-closure purely infinite as a C*-algebra? This is Problem 8.4 in ​[1]​. As noted in Problem 8.6 in ​[1]​, this is even unclear if is a unital, simple, purely infinite… Weiterlesen »

Liftable normal elements

Von | September 22, 2020

Given a C*-algebra and a closed, two-sided ideal , is the image of the normal elements in under the quotient map a closed subset of ? Equivalently, if is a sequence of normal elements in that converge to , and if each admits a normal lift in , does admit a normal lift? This question… Weiterlesen »

Simple, Z-stable, projectionless C*-algebras

Von | September 22, 2020

Do simple, -stable, stably projectionless C*-algebras have stable rank one? Definitions: A C*-algebra is said to be -stable if it tensorially absorbs the Jiang-Su algebra , that is, . Further, a simple C*-algebra is projectionless if it contains no nonzero projections, and it is stably projectionless if is projectionless. (In the nonsimple case, one should… Weiterlesen »

Nonregular, simple, nuclear C*-algebras

Von | September 7, 2020

(Based on the talk „Thoughts on the classification problem for amenable C*-algebras“ of George Elliott, 30. June 2020, at the Zagreb Workshop on Operator Theory.) Let us consider the class of unital, separable, simple, nuclear C*-algebras. The Toms-Winter conjecture predicts that for such an algebra , the following conditions are equivalent: has finite nuclear dimension.… Weiterlesen »

Real rank of B(H) tensor B(H)

Von | Juni 20, 2020

Given a separable, infinite-dimensional Hilbert space , what is the real rank of the minimal tensor product ? Background/Motivation: The real rank is a noncommutative dimension theory that was introduced by Brown and Pedersen in ​[1]​. It associates to each C*-algebra a number (its real rank) . The lowest and most interesting value is zero.… Weiterlesen »

Automorphisms of the Calkin algebra

Von | Juni 20, 2020

Does the Calkin algebra admit an automorphism that induces the flip on ? Background/Motivation: Let be a separable, infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. The Calkin algebra is the quotient of the bounded, linear operators on by the closed, two-sided ideal of compact operators. The important problem of whether the Calkin algebra has outer automorphisms was eventually shown… Weiterlesen »