Villadsen algebras

Abstract

C*-algebras are rings, sometimes nonunital, obeying certain axioms that ensure a very well-behaved representation theory upon Hilbert space. Moreover, there are some well-known features of the representation theory leading to subtle questions about norms on tensor products of C*-algebras, and thus to the subclass of nuclear C*-algebras. The question whether all separable nuclear C*-algebras satisfy the Universal Coefficient Theorem (UCT) remains one of the most important open problems in the structure and classification theory of such algebras. One of the most promising ways to test the UCT conjecture depends on finding C*-algebras that behave as idempotents under the tensor product, and satisfy certain additional properties. Briefly put, it has been shown that if there exists a simple, separable, and nuclear C*-algebra that is an idempotent under the tensor product, satisfies a certain technical property, and is not one of the already known such elements $\left\{ O_\infty, O_2, \UHF , J, Z, \C, \compact \right\}$ then the UCT fails. Although we do not disprove the UCT in this publication, we do find new idempotents in the class of Villadsen algebras.