Cartan subalgebras in C*-algebras. Existence and uniqueness

Abstract

We initiate the study of Cartan subalgebras in C*-algebras, with a particular focus on existence and uniqueness questions. For homogeneous C*-algebras, these questions can be analyzed systematically using the theory of fiber bundles. For group C*-algebras, while we are able to find Cartan subalgebras in C*-algebras of many connected Lie groups, there are classes of (discrete) groups, for instance non-abelian free groups, whose reduced group C*-algebras do not have any Cartan subalgebras. Moreover, we show that uniqueness of Cartan subalgebras usually fails for classifiable C*-algebras. However, distinguished Cartan subalgebras exist in some cases, for instance in nuclear uniform Roe algebras.