Normalizers of Operator Algebras and Reflexivity

The set of normalizers between von Neumann (or, more generally, reflexive) algebras A and B, (that is, the set of all operators x such that xAx* is a subset of B and x*Bx is a subset of A) possesses `local linear structure': it is a union of reflexive linear spaces. These spaces belong to the interesting class of normalizing linear spaces, namely, those linear spaces U for which UU*U is a subset of U. Such a space is reflexive whenever it is ultraweakly closed, and then it is of the form U={x:xp=h(p)x, for all p in P}, where P is a set of projections and h a certain map defined on P. A normalizing space consists of normalizers between appropriate von Neumann algebras A and B. Necessary and sufficient conditions are found for a normalizing space to consist of normalizers between two reflexive algebras. Normalizing spaces which are bimodules over maximal abelian selfadjoint algebras consist of operators `supported' on sets of the form [f=g] where f and g are appropriate Borel functions. They also satisfy spectral synthesis in the sense of Arveson.Comment: 20 pages; to appear in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Societ

Lie Groupoids and Lie algebroids in physics and noncommutative geometry

The aim of this review paper is to explain the relevance of Lie groupoids and Lie algebroids to both physicists and noncommutative geometers. Groupoids generalize groups, spaces, group actions, and equivalence relations. This last aspect dominates in noncommutative geometry, where groupoids provide the basic tool to desingularize pathological quotient spaces. In physics, however, the main role of groupoids is to provide a unified description of internal and external symmetries. What is shared by noncommutative geometry and physics is the importance of Connes's idea of associating a C*-algebra C*(G) to a Lie groupoid G: in noncommutative geometry C*(G) replaces a given singular quotient space by an appropriate noncommutative space, whereas in physics it gives the algebra of observables of a quantum system whose symmetries are encoded by G. Moreover, Connes's map G -> C*(G) has a classical analogue G -> A*(G) in symplectic geometry due to Weinstein, which defines the Poisson manifold of the corresponding classical system as the dual of the so-called Lie algebroid A(G) of the Lie groupoid G, an object generalizing both Lie algebras and tangent bundles. This will also lead into symplectic groupoids and the conjectural functoriality of quantization.Comment: 39 pages; to appear in special issue of J. Geom. Phy

On differential graded categories

Differential graded categories enhance our understanding of triangulated categories appearing in algebra and geometry. In this survey, we review their foundations and report on recent work by Drinfeld, Dugger-Shipley, ..., Toen and Toen-Vaquie.Comment: 30 pages, correction at the end of 3.9, corrections and added references in 5.

Applications of operator space theory to nest algebra bimodules

Recently Blecher and Kashyap have generalized the notion of W* modules over von Neumann algebras to the setting where the operator algebras are \sigma- weakly closed algebras of operators on a Hilbert space. They call these modules weak* rigged modules. We characterize the weak* rigged modules over nest algebras . We prove that Y is a right weak* rigged module over a nest algebra Alg(M) if and only if there exists a completely isometric normal representation \phi of Y and a nest algebra Alg(N) such that Alg(N)\phi(Y)Alg(M) \subset \phi(Y) while \phi(Y) is implemented by a continuous nest homomorphism from M onto N. We describe some properties which are preserved by continuous CSL homomorphisms