Boundary quotients and ideals of Toeplitz C*-algebras of Artin groups

We study the quotients of the Toeplitz C*-algebra of a quasi-lattice ordered group (G,P), which we view as crossed products by a partial actions of G on closed invariant subsets of a totally disconnected compact Hausdorff space, the Nica spectrum of (G,P). Our original motivation and our main examples are drawn from right-angled Artin groups, but many of our results are valid for more general quasi-lattice ordered groups. We show that the Nica spectrum has a unique minimal closed invariant subset, which we call the boundary spectrum, and we define the boundary quotient to be the crossed product of the corresponding restricted partial action. The main technical tools used are the results of Exel, Laca, and Quigg on simplicity and ideal structure of partial crossed products, which depend on amenability and topological freeness of the partial action and its restriction to closed invariant subsets. When there exists a generalised length function, or controlled map, defined on G and taking values in an amenable group, we prove that the partial action is amenable on arbitrary closed invariant subsets. Our main results are obtained for right-angled Artin groups with trivial centre, that is, those with no cyclic direct factor; they include a presentation of the boundary quotient in terms of generators and relations that generalises Cuntz's presentation of O_n, a proof that the boundary quotient is purely infinite and simple, and a parametrisation of the ideals of the Toeplitz C*-algebra in terms of subsets of the standard generators of the Artin group.Comment: 26 page

Phase transition on the Toeplitz algebra of the affine semigroup over the natural numbers

We show that the group ${\mathbb Q \rtimes \mathbb Q^*_+}$ of orientation-preserving affine transformations of the rational numbers is quasi-lattice ordered by its subsemigroup ${\mathbb N \rtimes \mathbb N^\times}$. The associated Toeplitz $C^*$-algebra ${\mathcal T}({\mathbb N \rtimes \mathbb N^\times})$ is universal for isometric representations which are covariant in the sense of Nica. We give a presentation of this Toeplitz algebra in terms of generators and relations, and use this to show that the $C^*$-algebra ${\mathcal Q_\mathbb N}$ recently introduced by Cuntz is the boundary quotient of $({\mathbb Q \rtimes \mathbb Q^*_+}, {\mathbb N \rtimes \mathbb N^\times})$ in the sense of Crisp and Laca. The Toeplitz algebra ${\mathcal T}({\mathbb N \rtimes \mathbb N^\times})$ carries a natural dynamics $\sigma$, which induces the one considered by Cuntz on the quotient ${\mathcal Q_\mathbb N}$, and our main result is the computation of the KMS$_\beta$ (equilibrium) states of the dynamical system $({\mathcal T}({\mathbb N \rtimes \mathbb N^\times}), {\mathbb R},\sigma)$ for all values of the inverse temperature $\beta$. For $\beta \in [1, 2]$ there is a unique KMS$_\beta$ state, and the KMS$_1$ state factors through the quotient map onto ${\mathcal Q_\mathbb N}$, giving the unique KMS state discovered by Cuntz. At $\beta =2$ there is a phase transition, and for $\beta>2$ the KMS$_\beta$ states are indexed by probability measures on the circle. There is a further phase transition at $\beta=\infty$, where the KMS$_\infty$ states are indexed by the probability measures on the circle, but the ground states are indexed by the states on the classical Toeplitz algebra ${\mathcal T}(\mathbb N)$.Comment: 38 page

KMS states of quasi-free dynamics on Pimsner algebras

A continuous one-parameter group of unitary isometries of a right Hilbert C*-bimodule induces a quasi-free dynamics on the Cuntz-Pimsner C*-algebra of the bimodule and on its Toeplitz extension. The restriction of such a dynamics to the algebra of coefficients of the bimodule is trivial, and the corresponding KMS states of the Toeplitz-Cuntz-Pimsner and Cuntz-Pimsner C*-algebras are characterized in terms of traces on the algebra of coefficients. This generalizes and sheds light onto various earlier results about KMS states of the gauge actions on Cuntz algebras, Cuntz-Krieger algebras, and crossed products by endomorphisms. We also obtain a more general characterization, in terms of KMS weights, for the case in which the inducing isometries are not unitary, and accordingly, the restriction of the quasi-free dynamics to the algebra of coefficients is nontrivial

Type III_1 equilibrium states of the Toeplitz algebra of the affine semigroup over the natural numbers

We complete the analysis of KMS-states of the Toeplitz algebra of the affine semigroup over the natural numbers, recently studied by Raeburn and the first author, by showing that for every inverse temperature beta in the critical interval [1,2], the unique KMS_beta-state is of type III_1. We prove this by reducing the type classification from the Toeplitz algebra to that of the symmetric part of the Bost-Connes system, with a shift in inverse temperature. To carry out this reduction we first obtain a parametrization of the Nica spectrum of the Toeplitz algebra in terms of an adelic space. Combining a characterization of traces on crossed products due to the second author with an analysis of the action of the affine semigroup on the Nica spectrum, we can also recover all the KMS-states originally computed by Raeburn and the first author. Our computation sheds light on why there is a free transitive circle action on the extremal KMS_beta-states for beta>2 that does not ostensibly come from an action on the C*-algebra.Comment: 15 pages, AMS-LaTe