Non-commutative branched covers and bundle unitarizability

Abstract: We prove that (a) the sections space of a continuous unital subhomogeneous $C^*$ bundle over compact metrizable $X$ admits a finite-index expectation onto $C(X)$, answering a question of Blanchard-Gogi\'{c} (in the metrizable case); (b) such expectations cannot, generally, have ``optimal index'', answering negatively a variant of the same question; and (c) a homogeneous continuous Banach bundle over a locally paracompact base space $X$ can be renormed into a Hilbert bundle in such a manner that the original space of bounded sections is $C_b(X)$-linearly Banach-Mazur-close to the resulting Hilbert module over the algebra $C_b(X)$ of continuous bounded functions on $X$. This last result resolves quantitatively another problem posed by Gogi\'{c}.