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Are all amenable traces quasidiagonal?

Determine whether, for every C*-algebra A, every amenable trace on A is quasidiagonal.

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Background

The paper highlights a central question in the theory of traces on C*-algebras: whether amenability of a trace implies quasidiagonality. This problem is longstanding and remains unresolved in full generality.

Significant partial progress is known: by results of Tikuisis–White–Winter (extended by Schafhauser and Gabe), every faithful amenable trace on an exact C*-algebra satisfying the UCT is quasidiagonal. Brown–Carrion–White proved that any amenable trace on a cone C*-algebra is quasidiagonal, reflecting a homotopy flavor since cones are contractible.

This paper contributes homotopy-invariance results that imply additional positive cases. For instance, if either A or B is exact, A is homotopy dominated by B, and all amenable traces on B are quasidiagonal, then all amenable traces on A are quasidiagonal (Theorem 4.9 and Corollary 4.12). Despite these advances, the general question across all C*-algebras remains open.

References

The question of whether all amenable traces are quasidiagonal is a famous open question (see ).

Homotopy lifting, asymptotic homomorphisms, and traces (2508.00125 - Shulman, 31 Jul 2025) in Introduction