Crossed products of dynamical systems; rigidity Vs. strong proximality

Abstract: Given a dynamical system $(X, \Gamma)$, the corresponding crossed product $C^*$-algebra $C(X)\rtimes_{r}\Gamma$ is called reflecting, when every intermediate $C^*$-algebra $C^*_r(\Gamma)<\mathcal{A} < C(X)\rtimes_{r}\Gamma$ is of the form $\mathcal{A}=C(Y)\rtimes_{r}\Gamma$, corresponding to a dynamical factor $X \rightarrow Y$. It is called almost reflecting if $\mathbb{E}(\mathcal{A}) \subset \mathcal{A}$ for every such $\mathcal{A}$. These two notions coincide for groups admitting the approximation property (AP). Let $\Gamma$ be a non-elementary convergence group or a lattice in $\text{SL}_d(\mathbb{R})$ for some $d \ge 2$. We show that any uniformly rigid system $(X,\Gamma)$ is almost reflecting. In particular, this holds for any equicontinuous action. In the von Neumann setting, for the same groups $\Gamma$ and any uniformly rigid system $(X,\mathcal{B},\mu, \Gamma)$ the crossed product algebra $L^{\infty}(X,\mu)\rtimes\Gamma$ is reflecting. An inclusion of algebras $\mathcal{A}\subset\mathcal{B}$ is called $\textit{minimal ambient}$ if there are no intermediate algebras. As a demonstration of our methods, we construct examples of minimal ambient inclusions with various interesting properties in the $C^*$ and the von Neumann settings.