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We develop a theory of general quotients for W- and Cu-semigroups beyond the case of quotients by ideals. To this end, we introduce the notion of a normal pair, which allows us to take quotients of W-semigroups in a similar way as normal subgroups arise as kernels of group homomorphisms. We use this to define the dynamical Cuntz semigroup as the universal object induced from an action of a group G on a W-semigroup. In the C*-algebraic framework, under mild assumptions, the universality of this dynamical invariant helps us tap into the structure of the Cuntz semigroup of crossed product C*-algebras., Comment: 49 pages

We show that the nuclear dimension of a (twisted) group C*-algebra of a virtually polycyclic group is finite. This prompts us to make a conjecture relating finite nuclear dimension of group C*-algebras and finite Hirsch length, which we then verify for a class of elementary amenable groups beyond the virtually polycyclic case. In particular, we give the first examples of finitely generated, non-residually finite groups with finite nuclear dimension. A parallel conjecture on finite decomposition rank is also formulated and an analogous result is obtained. Our method relies heavily on recent work of Hirshberg and the second named author on actions of virtually nilpotent groups on $C_0(X)$-algebras., Comment: 36 pages

The notion of almost elementariness for a locally compact Hausdorff \'{e}tale groupoid $\mathcal{G}$ with a compact unit space was introduced by the authors as a sufficient condition ensuring the reduced groupoid $C^*$-algebra $C^*_r(\mathcal{G})$ is (tracially) $\mathcal{Z}$-stable and thus classifiable under additional natural assumption. In this paper, we explore the converse direction and show that many groupoids in the literature serving as models for classifiable $C^*$-algebras are almost elementary. In particular, for a large class $\mathcal{C}$ of Elliott invariants and a $C^*$-algebra $A$ with $\operatorname{Ell}(A)\in \mathcal{C}$, we show that $A$ is classifiable if and only if $A$ possesses a minimal, effective, amenable, second countable, almost elementary groupoid model, which leads to a groupoid-theoretic characterization of classifiability of $C^*$-algebras with certain Elliott invariants. Moreover, we build a connection between almost elementariness and pure infiniteness for groupoids and study obstructions to obtaining a transformation groupoid model for the Jiang-Su algebra $\mathcal{Z}$.

In this paper, we prove the Novikov conjecture for a class of highly non-linear groups, namely discrete subgroups of the diffeomorphism group of a compact smooth manifold. This removes the volume-preserving condition in a previous work. This result is proved by studying operator $K$-theory and group actions on continuous fields of infinite dimensional non-positively curved spaces., Comment: 98 pages, minor revisions

We establish finite nuclear dimension for crossed product C*-algebras arising from various classes of possibly non-free topological actions, including arbitrary actions of finitely generated virtually nilpotent groups on finite dimensional spaces, certain amenable actions of hyperbolic groups, and certain allosteric actions of wreath products. We obtain these results by introducing a new notion of dimension for topological dynamical systems, called the long thin covering dimension, which involves a suitable version of Rokhlin-type towers with controlled overlaps for possibly non-free actions., Comment: Revised to obtain better bounds, correct minor errors and improve the exposition; most significant changes are in Section 10 and the introduction; 122 pages

In this paper, we introduce two new approximation properties for \'etale groupoids, almost elementariness and (ubiquitous) fiberwise amenability, inspired by Matui's and Kerr's notions of almost finiteness. In fact, we show that, in their respective scopes of applicability, both notions of almost finiteness are equivalent to the conjunction of our two properties. These new properties stem from viewing \'etale groupoids as coarse geometric objects in the spirit of geometric group theory. Fiberwise amenability is a coarse geometric property of \'etale groupoids that is closely related to the existence of invariant measures on unit spaces and corresponds to the amenability of the acting group in a transformation groupoid. Almost elementariness may be viewed as a better dynamical analogue of the regularity properties of C*-algebras than almost finiteness, since, unlike the latter, the former may also be applied to the purely infinite case. To support this analogy, we show almost elementary minimal groupoids give rise to tracially Z-stable reduced groupoid C*-algebras. In particular, the reduced C*-algebras of second countable amenable almost finite groupoids in Matui's sense are Z-stable., Comment: 63 pages

Video action detection approaches usually conduct actor-centric action recognition over RoI-pooled features following the standard pipeline of Faster-RCNN. In this work, we first empirically find the recognition accuracy is highly correlated with the bounding box size of an actor, and thus higher resolution of actors contributes to better performance. However, video models require dense sampling in time to achieve accurate recognition. To fit in GPU memory, the frames to backbone network must be kept low-resolution, resulting in a coarse feature map in RoI-Pooling layer. Thus, we revisit RCNN for actor-centric action recognition via cropping and resizing image patches around actors before feature extraction with I3D deep network. Moreover, we found that expanding actor bounding boxes slightly and fusing the context features can further boost the performance. Consequently, we develop a surpringly effective baseline (Context-Aware RCNN) and it achieves new state-of-the-art results on two challenging action detection benchmarks of AVA and JHMDB. Our observations challenge the conventional wisdom of RoI-Pooling based pipeline and encourage researchers rethink the importance of resolution in actor-centric action recognition. Our approach can serve as a strong baseline for video action detection and is expected to inspire new ideas for this filed. The code is available at \url{https://github.com/MCG-NJU/CRCNN-Action}., Comment: ECCV 2020 Camera-ready version

In recent years, a large class of nuclear $C^\ast$-algebras have been classified, modulo an assumption on the Universal Coefficient Theorem (UCT). We think this assumption is redundant and propose a strategy for proving it. Indeed, following the original proof of the classification theorem, we propose bridging the gap between reduction theorems and examples. While many such bridges are possible, various approximate ideal structures appear quite promising., Comment: 13 pages; to appear in the Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics

Modeling relation between actors is important for recognizing group activity in a multi-person scene. This paper aims at learning discriminative relation between actors efficiently using deep models. To this end, we propose to build a flexible and efficient Actor Relation Graph (ARG) to simultaneously capture the appearance and position relation between actors. Thanks to the Graph Convolutional Network, the connections in ARG could be automatically learned from group activity videos in an end-to-end manner, and the inference on ARG could be efficiently performed with standard matrix operations. Furthermore, in practice, we come up with two variants to sparsify ARG for more effective modeling in videos: spatially localized ARG and temporal randomized ARG. We perform extensive experiments on two standard group activity recognition datasets: the Volleyball dataset and the Collective Activity dataset, where state-of-the-art performance is achieved on both datasets. We also visualize the learned actor graphs and relation features, which demonstrate that the proposed ARG is able to capture the discriminative relation information for group activity recognition., Comment: Accepted by CVPR 2019

We prove that the Novikov conjecture holds for any discrete group admitting an isometric and metrically proper action on an admissible Hilbert-Hadamard space. Admissible Hilbert-Hadamard spaces are a class of (possibly infinite-dimensional) non-positively curved metric spaces that contain dense sequences of closed convex subsets isometric to Riemannian manifolds. Examples of admissible Hilbert-Hadamard spaces include Hilbert spaces, certain simply connected and non-positively curved Riemannian-Hilbertian manifolds and infinite\-/dimensional symmetric spaces. Thus our main theorem can be considered as an infinite-dimensional analogue of Kasparov's theorem on the Novikov conjecture for groups acting properly and isometrically on complete, simply connected and non-positively curved manifolds. As a consequence, we show that the Novikov conjecture holds for geometrically discrete subgroups of the group of volume preserving diffeomorphisms of a closed smooth manifold. This result is inspired by Connes' theorem that the Novikov conjecture holds for higher signatures associated to the Gelfand-Fuchs classes of groups of diffeormorphisms., Comment: 55 pages; contains minor corrections and modifications from the last version; to be published in GAFA

We show that for any locally compact Hausdorff space $Y$ with finite covering dimension and for any continuous flow $\mathbb{R} \curvearrowright Y$, the resulting crossed product $C^*$-algebra $C_0(Y) \rtimes \mathbb{R}$ has finite nuclear dimension. This generalizes previous results for free flows, where this was proved using Rokhlin dimension techniques. As an application, we obtain bounds for the nuclear dimension of $C^*$-algebras associated to one-dimensional orientable foliations. This result is analogous to the one we obtained earlier for non-free actions of $\mathbb{Z}$. Some novel techniques in our proof include the use of a conditional expectation constructed from the inclusion of a clopen subgroupoid, as well as the introduction of what we call fiberwise groupoid coverings that help us build a link between foliation $C^*$-algebras and crossed products., Comment: 46 pages; minor revisions; to appear in Advances in Mathematics

We use category-theoretic techniques to provide two proofs showing that for a higher-rank graph $\Lambda$, its cubical (co-)homology and categorical (co-)homology groups are isomorphic in all degrees, thus answering a question of Kumjian, Pask and Sims in the positive. Our first proof uses the topological realization of a higher-rank graph, which was introduced by Kaliszewski, Kumjian, Quigg, and Sims. In our more combinatorial second proof, we construct, explicitly and in both directions, maps on the level of (co-)chain complexes that implement said isomorphism. Along the way, we extend the definition of cubical (co-)homology to allow arbitrary coefficient modules., Comment: 40 pages

We define the local-triviality dimension for actions of compact quantum groups on unital C*-algebras. The resulting compact quantum principal bundle is said to be locally trivial when this dimension is finite. For commutative C*-algebras, this notion recovers the standard definition of local triviality of compact principal bundles. We prove that actions with finite local-triviality dimension are automatically free. Then we apply this new notion to prove the noncommutative Borsuk-Ulam-type conjecture under the assumption that a compact quantum group admits a non-trivial classical subgroup whose induced action has finite local-triviality dimension. This is a noncommutative extension of the Borsuk-Ulam-type theorem for locally trivial principal bundles., Comment: 37 pages

Amenability for groups can be extended to metric spaces, algebras over commutative fields and $C^*$-algebras by adapting the notion of F{\o}lner nets. In the present article we investigate the close ties among these extensions and show that these three pictures unify in the context of the uniform Roe algebra $C_u^*(X)$ over a metric space $(X,d)$ with bounded geometry. In particular, we show that the following conditions are equivalent: (1) $(X,d)$ is amenable; (2) the translation algebra generating $C_u^*(X)$ is algebraically amenable (3) $C_u^*(X)$ has a tracial state; (4) $C_u^*(X)$ is not properly infinite; (5) $[1]_0\neq [0]_0$ in the $K_0$-group $K_0(C_u^*(X))$; (6) $C_u^*(X)$ does not contain the Leavitt algebra as a unital $*$-subalgebra; (7) $C_u^*(X)$ is a F{\o}lner $C^*$-algebra in the sense that it admits a net of unital completely positive maps into matrices which is asymptotically multiplicative in the normalized trace norm. We also show that every possible tracial state of the uniform Roe algebra $C_u^*(X)$ is amenable., Comment: final version; Remark 4.20 added solving partially Problem 4.19; typos corrected; references updated; 30 pages

We provide the converses to two results of J. Roe (Geom. Topol. 2005): first, the warped cone associated to a free action of an a-T-menable group admits a fibred coarse embedding into a Hilbert space, and second, a free action yielding a warped cone with property A must be amenable. We construct examples showing that in both cases the freeness assumption is necessary. The first equivalence is obtained also for other classes of Banach spaces, in particular for $L^p$-spaces., Comment: Final authors' version of the article published by JTA. Changes since v2: the proof of Lem. 3.8 (now Prop. 3.10) is split between several lemmata, the proof of Thm 4.2 simplified and more detailed

Based on the localization algebras of Yu, and their subsequent analysis by Qiao and Roe, we give a new picture of KK-theory in terms of time-parametrized families of (locally) compact operators that asymptotically commute with appropriate representations., Comment: 16 pages, a second proof was added for Theorem 5.1

We introduce a notion of Rokhlin dimension for one parameter automorphism groups of C*-algebras. This generalizes Kishimoto's Rokhlin property for flows, and is analogous to the notion of Rokhlin dimension for actions of the integers and other discrete groups introduced by the authors and Zacharias in previous papers. We show that finite nuclear dimension and absorption of a strongly self-absorbing C*-algebra are preserved under forming crossed products by flows with finite Rokhlin dimension, and that these crossed products are stable. Furthermore, we show that a flow on a commutative C*-algebra arising from a free topological flow has finite Rokhlin dimension, whenever the spectrum is a locally compact metrizable space with finite covering dimension. For flows that are both free and minimal, this has strong consequences for the associated crossed product C*-algebras: Those containing a non-zero projection are classified by the Elliott invariant (for compact manifolds this consists of topological K-theory together with the space of invariant probability measures and a natural pairing given by the Ruelle-Sullivan map)., Comment: 67 pages. Minor changes from previous version. To appear, Comm. Math. Phys

In this article we analyze the notions of amenability and paradoxical decomposition from an algebraic perspective. We consider this dichotomy for locally finite extended metric spaces and for general algebras over commutative fields. In the context of algebras we also study the relation of amenability with proper infiniteness. We apply our general analysis to two important classes of algebras: the unital Leavitt path algebras and the translation algebras on locally finite extended metric spaces. In particular, we show that the amenability of a metric space is equivalent to the algebraic amenability of the corresponding translation algebra., Comment: final version; typos corrected; references updates; 38 pages

We show that if X is a finite dimensional locally compact Hausdorff space, then the crossed product of C_0(X) by any automorphism has finite nuclear dimension. This generalizes previous results, in which the automorphism was required to be free. As an application, we show that group C*-algebras of certain non-nilpotent groups have finite nuclear dimension., Comment: With an appendix by Gabor Szabo. 28 pages. Minor typos corrected. To appear, Adv. Math. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1308.5418 by other authors

We show that the asymptotic dimension of box spaces behaves (sub)additively with respect to extensions of groups. As a result, we obtain that for an elementary amenable group, the asymptotic dimension of any of its box spaces is bounded above by its Hirsch length. This bound is shown to be an equality for a large subclass of groups including all virtually polycyclic groups.

Motivated by reformulating Furstenberg's $\times p,\times q$ conjecture via representations of a crossed product $C^*$-algebra, we show that in a discrete $C^*$-dynamical system $(A,\Gamma)$, the space of (ergodic) $\Gamma$-invariant states on $A$ is homeomorphic to a subspace of (pure) state space of $A\rtimes\Gamma$. Various applications of this in topological dynamical systems and representation theory are obtained. In particular, we prove that the classification of ergodic $\Gamma$-invariant regular Borel probability measures on a compact Hausdorff space $X$ is equivalent to the classification a special type of irreducible representations of $C(X)\rtimes \Gamma$., Comment: Introduction rewritten, 20 pages. Comments welcome

We introduce the concept of Rokhlin dimension for actions of residually finite groups on C*-algebras, extending previous notions of Rokhlin dimension for actions of finite groups and the integers, as introduced by Hirshberg, Winter and the third author. If the group has a box space of finite asymptotic dimension, then actions with finite Rokhlin dimension preserve the property of having finite nuclear dimension, when passing to the crossed product C*-algebra. A detailed study of the asymptotic dimension of box spaces shows that finitely generated, virtually nilpotent groups have box spaces with finite asymptotic dimension, providing a reasonably large class of examples. We then establish a relation between Rokhlin dimension of residually finite groups acting on compact metric spaces and amenability dimension of the action in the sense of Guentner, Willett and Yu. We show that for free actions of infinite, finitely generated, nilpotent groups on finite dimensional spaces, both these dimensional values are finite. In particular, the associated transformation group C*-algebras have finite nuclear dimension. This extends an analogous result about $\mathbb{Z}^m$-actions by the first author. We also provide some results concerning the genericity of finite Rokhlin dimension, and permanence properties with respect to the absorption of a strongly self-absorbing C*-algebra., Comment: 64 pages; some small corrections and added remarks