Zappa-Sz\'ep product groupoids and C*-blends

Abstract

We study the external and internal Zappa-Sz\'ep product of topological groupoids. We show that under natural continuity assumptions the Zappa-Sz\'ep product groupoid is \'etale if and only if the individual groupoids are \'etale. In our main result we show that the C*-algebra of a locally compact Hausdorff \'etale Zappa-Sz\'ep product groupoid is a C*-blend, in the sense of Exel, of the individual groupoid C*-algebras. We finish with some examples, including groupoids built from *-commuting endomorphisms, and skew product groupoids.