C*-simplicity of free products with amalgamation and radical classes of groups

Abstract

We give new characterizations to ensure that a free product of groups with amalgamation has a simple reduced group C*-algebra, and provide a concrete example of an amalgam with trivial kernel, such that its reduced group C*-algebra has a unique tracial state, but is not simple. Moreover, we show that there is a radical class of groups for which the reduced group C*-algebra of any group is simple precisely when the group has a trivial radical corresponding to this class.