Rigidity results for Lp-operator algebras and applications

For p∈[1,∞), we show that every unital Lp-operator algebra contains a unique maximal C⁎-subalgebra, which is always abelian if p≠2. Using this, we canonically associate to every unital Lp-operator algebra A an étale groupoid GA, which in many cases of interest is a complete invariant for A. By identifying this groupoid for large classes of examples, we obtain a number of rigidity results that display a stark contrast with the case p=2; the most striking one being that of crossed products by topologically free actions. Our rigidity results give answers to questions concerning the existence of isomorphisms between different algebras. Among others, we show that for the Lp-analog O2p of the Cuntz algebra, there is no isometric isomorphism between O2p and O2p⊗pO2p, when p≠2. In particular, we deduce that there is no Lp-version of Kirchberg's absorption theorem, and that there is no K-theoretic classification of purely infinite simple amenable Lp-operator algebras for p≠2. Our methods also allow us to recover a folklore fact in the case of C*-algebras (p=2), namely that no isomorphism O2≅O2⊗O2 preserves the canonical Cartan subalgebras.