APPROXIMATELY INNER FLOWS ON SEPARABLE C*-ALGEBRAS

Abstract

We present two types of result for approximately inner one-parameter automorphism groups (referred to as AI flows hereafter) of separable C*-algebras. First, if there is an irreducible representation π of a separable C*-algebra A such that π(A) does not contain non-zero compact operators, then there is an AI flow α such that π is α-covariant and α is far from uniformly continuous in the sense that α induces a flow on π(A) which has full Connes spectrum. Second, if α is an AI flow on a separable C*-algebra A and π is an α-covariant irreducible representation, then we can choose a sequence (hn) of self-adjoint elements in A such that αt is the limit of inner flows Ad eithn and the sequence π(eithn) of one-parameter unitary groups (referred to as unitary flows hereafter) converges to a unitary flow which implements α in π. This latter result will be extended to cover the case of weakly inner type I representations. In passing we shall also show that if two representations of a separable simple C*-algebra on a separable Hilbert space generate the same von Neumann algebra of type I, then there is an approximately inner automorphism which sends one into the other up to equivalence.