This book collects the notes of the lectures given at an Advanced Course on Dynamical Systems at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM) in Barcelona. The notes consist of four series of lectures. The first one, given by Andrew Toms, presents the basic properties of the Cuntz semigroup and its role in the classification program of simple, nuclear, separable C*-algebras. The second series of lectures, delivered by N. Christopher Phillips, serves as an introduction to group actions on C*-algebras and their crossed products, with emphasis on the simple case and when the crossed products are classifiable. The third one, given by David Kerr, treats various developments related to measure-theoretic and topological aspects of crossed products, focusing on internal and external approximation concepts, both for groups and C*-algebras. Finally, the last series of lectures, delivered by Thierry Giordano, is devoted to the theory of topological orbit equivalence, with particular attention to the classification of minimal actions by finitely generated abelian groups on the Cantor set.

This book is an exposition on the interesting interplay between topological dynamics and the theory of C*-algebras. Researchers working in topological dynamics from various fields in mathematics are becoming more and more interested in this kind of algebraic approach of dynamics. This book is designed to present to the readers the subject in an elementary way, including also results of recent developments.

This book is directed towards graduate students that wish to start from the basic theory of C*-algebras and advance to an overview of some of the most spectacular results concerning the structure of nuclear C*-algebras. The text is divided into three parts. First, elementary notions, classical theorems and constructions are developed. Then, essential examples in the theory, such as crossed products and the class of quasidiagonal C*-algebras, are examined, and finally, the Elliott invariant, the Cuntz semigroup, and the Jiang-Su algebra are defined. It is shown how these objects have played a fundamental role in understanding the fine structure of nuclear C*-algebras. To help understanding the theory, plenty of examples, treated in detail, are included. This volume will also be valuable to researchers in the area as a reference guide. It contains an extensive reference list to guide readers that wish to travel further.

Based on presentations given at the NordForsk Network Closing Conference “Operator Algebra and Dynamics,” held in Gjáargarður, Faroe Islands, in May 2012, this book features high quality research contributions and review articles by researchers associated with the NordForsk network and leading experts that explore the fundamental role of operator algebras and dynamical systems in mathematics with possible applications to physics, engineering and computer science. It covers the following topics: von Neumann algebras arising from discrete measured groupoids, purely infinite Cuntz-Krieger algebras, filtered K-theory over finite topological spaces, C*-algebras associated to shift spaces (or subshifts), graph C*-algebras, irrational extended rotation algebras that are shown to be C*-alloys, free probability, renewal systems, the Grothendieck Theorem for jointly completely bounded bilinear forms on C*-algebras, Cuntz-Li algebras associated with the a-adic numbers, crossed products of injective endomorphisms (the so-called Stacey crossed products), the interplay between dynamical systems, operator algebras and wavelets on fractals, C*-completions of the Hecke algebra of a Hecke pair, semiprojective C*-algebras, and the topological dimension of type I C*-algebras. Operator Algebra and Dynamics will serve as a useful resource for a broad spectrum of researchers and students in mathematics, physics, and engineering.

This volume contains the proceedings of a Leiden Workshop on Dynamical Systems and their accompanying Operator Structures which took place at the Lorentz Center in Leiden, The Netherlands, on July 21-25, 2008. These papers offer a panorama of selfadjoint and non-selfadjoint operator algebras associated with both noncommutative and commutative (topological) dynamical systems and related subjects. Papers on general theory, as well as more specialized ones on symbolic dynamics and complex dynamical systems, are included.

This book collects the notes of the lectures given at the Advanced Course on Crossed Products, Groupoids, and Rokhlin dimension, that took place at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM) from March 13 to March 17, 2017. The notes consist of three series of lectures. The first one was given by Dana Williams (Dartmouth College), and served as an introduction to crossed products of C*-algebras and the study of their structure. The second series of lectures was delivered by Aidan Sims (Wollongong), who gave an overview of the theory of topological groupoids (as a model for groups and group actions) and groupoid C*-algebras, with particular emphasis on the case of étale groupoids. Finally, the last series was delivered by Gábor Szabó (Copenhagen), and consisted of an introduction to Rokhlin type properties (mostly centered around the work of Hirshberg, Winter and Zacharias) with hints to the more advanced theory related to groupoids.

This volume in the Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science, Second Edition, covers recent developments in classical areas of ergodic theory, including the asymptotic properties of measurable dynamical systems, spectral theory, entropy, ergodic theorems, joinings, isomorphism theory, recurrence, nonsingular systems. It enlightens connections of ergodic theory with symbolic dynamics, topological dynamics, smooth dynamics, combinatorics, number theory, pressure and equilibrium states, fractal geometry, chaos. In addition, the new edition includes dynamical systems of probabilistic origin, ergodic aspects of Sarnak's conjecture, translation flows on translation surfaces, complexity and classification of measurable systems, operator approach to asymptotic properties, interplay with operator algebras

This book gives an account of the necessary background for group algebras and crossed products for actions of a group or a semigroup on a space and reports on some very recently developed techniques with applications to particular examples. Much of the material is available here for the first time in book form. The topics discussed are among the most classical and intensely studied C*-algebras. They are important for applications in fields as diverse as the theory of unitary group representations, index theory, the topology of manifolds or ergodic theory of group actions. Part of the most basic structural information for such a C*-algebra is contained in its K-theory. The determination of the K-groups of C*-algebras constructed from group or semigroup actions is a particularly challenging problem. Paul Baum and Alain Connes proposed a formula for the K-theory of the reduced crossed product for a group action that would permit, in principle, its computation. By work of many hands, the formula has by now been verified for very large classes of groups and this work has led to the development of a host of new techniques. An important ingredient is Kasparov's bivariant K-theory. More recently, also the C*-algebras generated by the regular representation of a semigroup as well as the crossed products for actions of semigroups by endomorphisms have been studied in more detail. Intriguing examples of actions of such semigroups come from ergodic theory as well as from algebraic number theory. The computation of the K-theory of the corresponding crossed products needs new techniques. In cases of interest the K-theory of the algebras reflects ergodic theoretic or number theoretic properties of the action.

During the last few years, the theory of operator algebras, particularly non-self-adjoint operator algebras, has evolved dramatically, experiencing both international growth and interfacing with other important areas. The present volume presents a survey of some of the latest developments in the field in a form that is detailed enough to be accessible to advanced graduate students as well as researchers in the field. Among the topics treated are: operator spaces, Hilbert modules, limit algebras, reflexive algebras and subspaces, relations to basis theory, C* algebraic quantum groups, endomorphisms of operator algebras, conditional expectations and projection maps, and applications, particularly to wavelet theory. The volume also features an historical paper offering a new approach to the Pythagoreans' discovery of irrational numbers.