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In the mathematical field of functional analysis, a nuclear C*-algebra is a C*-algebra $A$ such that for every C*-algebra $B$ the injective and projective C*-cross norms coincides on the algebraic tensor product $A \otimes B$ and the completion of $A \otimes B$ with respect to this norm is a C*-algebra. This property was first studied by Takesaki (1964) under the name "Property T", which is not related to Kazhdan's property T.

Characterizations

Nuclearity admits the following equivalent characterizations:

The identity map, as a completely positive map, approximately factors through matrix algebras. By this equivalence, nuclearity can be considered a noncommutative analogue of the existence of partitions of unity.
The enveloping von Neumann algebra is injective.
It is amenable as a Banach algebra.
(For separable algebras) It is isomorphic to a C*-subalgebra $B$ of the Cuntz algebra $𝒪 2$ with the property that there exists a conditional expectation from $𝒪 2$ to $B$ .

Examples

The commutative unital C* algebra of (real or complex-valued) continuous functions on a compact Hausdorff space as well as the noncommutative unital algebra of $n \times n$ real or complex matrices are nuclear.^[1]

References

^ Argerami, Martin (20 January 2023). Answer to "The C∗ algebras of matrices, continuous functions, measures and matrix-valued measures / continuous functions and their state spaces". Mathematics StackExchange. Stack Exchange.

Connes, Alain (1976), "Classification of injective factors.", Annals of Mathematics, Second Series, 104 (1): 73–115, doi:10.2307/1971057, ISSN 0003-486X, JSTOR 1971057, MR 0454659
Effros, Edward G.; Ruan, Zhong-Jin (2000), Operator spaces, London Mathematical Society Monographs. New Series, vol. 23, The Clarendon Press Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-853482-2, MR 1793753
Lance, E. Christopher (1982), "Tensor products and nuclear C*-algebras", Operator algebras and applications, Part I (Kingston, Ont., 1980), Proc. Sympos. Pure Math., vol. 38, Providence, R.I.: Amer. Math. Soc., pp. 379–399, MR 0679721
Pisier, Gilles (2003), Introduction to operator space theory, London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, vol. 294, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-81165-1, MR 2006539
Rørdam, M. (2002), "Classification of nuclear simple C*-algebras", Classification of nuclear C*-algebras. Entropy in operator algebras, Encyclopaedia Math. Sci., vol. 126, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 1–145, MR 1878882
Takesaki, Masamichi (1964), "On the cross-norm of the direct product of C*-algebras", The Tohoku Mathematical Journal, Second Series, 16: 111–122, doi:10.2748/tmj/1178243737, ISSN 0040-8735, MR 0165384
Takesaki, Masamichi (2003), "Nuclear C*-algebras", Theory of operator algebras. III, Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences, vol. 127, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 153–204, ISBN 978-3-540-42913-5, MR 1943007

v t e Topological tensor products and nuclear spaces
Basic concepts	Auxiliary normed spaces Nuclear space Tensor product Topological tensor product of Hilbert spaces
Topologies	Inductive tensor product Injective tensor product Projective tensor product
Operators/Maps	Fredholm determinant Fredholm kernel Hilbert–Schmidt operator Hypocontinuity Integral Nuclear between Banach spaces Trace class
Theorems	Grothendieck trace theorem Schwartz kernel theorem

Functional analysis (topics – glossary)

Spaces

Banach Besov Fréchet Hilbert Hölder Nuclear Orlicz Schwartz Sobolev Topological vector
Properties	Barrelled Complete Dual (Algebraic/Topological) Locally convex Reflexive Separable

Theorems

Operators

Algebras

Open problems

Applications

Advanced topics

Category

v t e Spectral theory and ^*-algebras
Basic concepts	Involution/-algebra Banach algebra B-algebra C-algebra Noncommutative topology Projection-valued measure Spectrum Spectrum of a C-algebra Spectral radius Operator space
Main results	Gelfand–Mazur theorem Gelfand–Naimark theorem Gelfand representation Polar decomposition Singular value decomposition Spectral theorem Spectral theory of normal C*-algebras
Special Elements/Operators	Isospectral Normal operator Hermitian/Self-adjoint operator Unitary operator Unit
Spectrum	Krein–Rutman theorem Normal eigenvalue Spectrum of a C*-algebra Spectral radius Spectral asymmetry Spectral gap
Decomposition	Decomposition of a spectrum Continuous Point Residual Approximate point Compression Direct integral Discrete Spectral abscissa
Spectral Theorem	Borel functional calculus Min-max theorem Positive operator-valued measure Projection-valued measure Riesz projector Rigged Hilbert space Spectral theorem Spectral theory of compact operators Spectral theory of normal C*-algebras
Special algebras	Amenable Banach algebra With an Approximate identity Banach function algebra Disk algebra Nuclear C*-algebra Uniform algebra Von Neumann algebra Tomita–Takesaki theory
Finite-Dimensional	Alon–Boppana bound Bauer–Fike theorem Numerical range Schur–Horn theorem
Generalizations	Dirac spectrum Essential spectrum Pseudospectrum Structure space (Shilov boundary)
Miscellaneous	Abstract index group Banach algebra cohomology Cohen–Hewitt factorization theorem Extensions of symmetric operators Fredholm theory Limiting absorption principle Schröder–Bernstein theorems for operator algebras Sherman–Takeda theorem Unbounded operator
Examples	Wiener algebra
Applications	Almost Mathieu operator Corona theorem Hearing the shape of a drum (Dirichlet eigenvalue) Heat kernel Kuznetsov trace formula Lax pair Proto-value function Ramanujan graph Rayleigh–Faber–Krahn inequality Spectral geometry Spectral method Spectral theory of ordinary differential equations Sturm–Liouville theory Superstrong approximation Transfer operator Transform theory Weyl law Wiener–Khinchin theorem

Characterizations

Examples

See also

References