A Groupoid Approach to Quantization

Abstract

Many interesting C*-algebras can be viewed as quantizations of Poisson manifolds. I propose that a Poisson manifold may be quantized by a twisted polarized convolution C*-algebra of a symplectic groupoid. Toward this end, I define polarizations for Lie groupoids and sketch the construction of this algebra. A large number of examples show that this idea unifies previous geometric constructions, including geometric quantization of symplectic manifolds and the C*-algebra of a Lie groupoid.