In [1], Blackadar and Handelman made two conjectures:
Conjecture 1: (Below Theorem I.2.4 in [1]) Let
be a unital C*-algebra. Then the set
of lower-semicontinuous dimension functions is dense in the set
of dimension functions.
Conjecture 2: (Below Theorem II.4.4 in [1]) Let
be a unital C*-algebra. Then the compact, convex set
is a Choquet simplex.
Here, a dimension function on a unital C*-algebra is a map
that associates to every matrix over
a positive number and satisfying properties that generalize the classical properties of the rank of complex matrices:
- If
and
are orthogonal matrices (that is,
), then
.
- If
is Cuntz-dominated by
(that is, there exist sequences
and
such that
), then
.
.
Such a dimension function is said to be lower-semicontinuous if it is lower-semicontinuous with respect to the norm-topology, that is, whenever is a sequence in
converging to some
, then
. We equip
with the topology of pointwise convergence. This gives
the structure of a compact, convex set. We note that the subset
is usually not closed (indeed, the conjecture is that it is dense). There is another (natural) topology on
giving it the structure of a compact, convex set that is even a Choquet simplex. Here, a compact, convex
set is a Choquet simplex if the set
of continuous, affine functions
satisfies Riesz interpolation, that is, given
satisfying
for
there exists
such that
for
. Choquet simplices have the property that every element can be represented in a unique way by a boundary measure. Important examples of Choquet simplices are the Bauer simplices: Given a compact, Hausdorff space
, the set
of positive, Borel probability measures on
is a Choquet simplex with boundary
, and
.
If is a commutative C*-algebra, then
naturally corresponds to the set of finitely-additive probability measures on
, while
naturally corresponds to the set of (
-additive) probability measures on
. For a general C*-algebra
, we therefore consider the dimension functions on
as „noncommutative, finitely-additive probability measures“, and similarly
are the „noncommutative probability measures“ on
. It is easy to see that the probability measures on a compact, Hausdorff space are dense in the set of finitely-additive probability measures (see the proof of Theorem I.2.4 in [1]), and it is a classical result that the finitely-additive probability measures on a compact, Hausdorff space form a Choquet simplex. The Blackadar-Handelman conjectures predict that theses results generalize to the noncommutative setting.
The first Blackadar-Handelman conjecture has been verified in the following cases: if is commutative (Theorem I.2.4 in [1]); if
is simple, exact, stably finite and has strict comparison of positive elements (Theorem B and 6.4, and Remark 6.5 in [2]); if
has finite radius of comparison (Theorem 3.3 in [3]).
The second Blackadar-Handelman conjecture has been verified in the following cases: if is commutative; if
is simple, exact, stably finite and
-stable (Theorem B in [2]); if
has real rank zero and stable rank one (Corollary 4.4 in [4]); in [5], the assumption of real rank zero was removed from the result in [4], thus verifying the second Blackadar-Handelman conjecture for all C*-algebras of stable rank one.
With view to the results in [5] it is natural to ask if the first Blackadar-Handelmann conjecture can be verified for all C*-algebras of stable rank one.
- [1]B. Blackadar, D. Handelman, Dimension functions and traces on C∗-algebras, Journal of Functional Analysis. (1982) 297–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1236(82)90009-x.
- [2]N.P. Brown, F. Perera, A.S. Toms, The Cuntz semigroup, the Elliott conjecture, and dimension functions on C*-algebras, Journal Für Die Reine Und Angewandte Mathematik (Crelles Journal). (2008). https://doi.org/10.1515/crelle.2008.062.
- [3]K. De Silva, A note on two Conjectures on Dimension funcitons of C*-algebras, ArXiv. (2016) 1601.03475.
- [4]F. Perera, The Structure of Positive Elements for C*-Algebras with Real Rank Zero, Int. J. Math. (1997) 383–405. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0129167x97000196.
- [5]R. Antoine, F. Perera, L. Robert, H. Thiel, C*-algebras of stable rank one and their Cuntz semigroups, Duke Math. J. (2022) (to appear).