Sanaz Pooya: Pre-colloquium — Introduction to group C*-algebras

Abstract:

Continuous functions on compact topological spaces are commutative C*-algebras. Groups and their actions on topological spaces can be employed to construct interesting non-commutative C*-algebras. These are known as group C*-algebras. In this talk, after a gentle introduction to C*-algebras, I will discuss various examples of group C*-algebras. Further, I will provide a brief historical account on the structure theory of group C*-algebras.

This is a pre-colloquium targeted towards master and PhD students as a preparation for Matthew Kennedy's colloquium talk  at 15:15.