viii, 113 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation consists of four principal parts. In the first, we introduce the tracial quasi-Rokhlin property for an automorphism α of a C *-algebra A (which is not assumed to be simple or to contain any projections). We then prove that under suitable assumptions on the algebra A , the associated crossed product C *-algebra C *([Special characters omitted.] , A , α) is simple, and the restriction map between the tracial states of C *([Special characters omitted.] , A , α) and the α-invariant tracial states on A is bijective. In the second part, we introduce a comparison property for minimal dynamical systems (the dynamic comparison property) and demonstrate sufficient conditions on the dynamical system which ensure that it holds. The third part ties these concepts together by demonstrating that given a minimal dynamical system ( X, h ) and a suitable simple C *-algebra A , a large class of automorphisms β of the algebra C ( X, A ) have the tracial quasi-Rokhlin property, with the dynamic comparison property playing a key role. Finally, we study the structure of the crossed product C *-algebra B = C *([Special characters omitted.] , C ( X , A ), β) by introducing a subalgebra B { y } of B , which is shown to be large in a sense that allows properties B { y } of to pass to B . Several conjectures about the deeper structural properties of B { y } and B are stated and discussed. / Committee in charge: Christopher Phillips, Chairperson, Mathematics; Daniel Dugger, Member, Mathematics; Huaxin Lin, Member, Mathematics; Marcin Bownik, Member, Mathematics; Van Kolpin, Outside Member, Economics

It is well known that communication systems employing multiple transmit and multiple receive antennas provide high data rates along with increased reliability. It has been shown that coding across both spatial and temporal domains together, called Space-Time Coding (STC), achieves, a diversity order equal to the product of the number of transmit and receive antennas. Space-Time Block Codes (STBC) achieving the maximum diversity is called full-diversity STBCs. An STBC is called information-lossless, if the structure of it is such that the maximum mutual information of the resulting equivalent channel is equal to the capacity of the channel. This thesis deals with high-rate and information-lossless STBCs obtained from certain matrix algebras called Crossed-Product Algebras. First we give constructions of high-rate STBCs using both commutative and non-commutative matrix algebras obtained from appropriate representations of extensions of the field of rational numbers. In the case of commutative algebras, we restrict ourselves to fields and call the STBCs obtained from them as STBCs from field extensions. In the case of non-commutative algebras, we consider only the class of crossed-product algebras. For the case of field extensions, we first construct high-rate; full-diversity STBCs for arbitrary number of transmit antennas, over arbitrary apriori specified signal sets. Then we obtain a closed form expression for the coding gain of these STBCs and give a tight lower bound on the coding gain of some of these STBCs. This lower bound in certain cases indicates that some of the STBCs from field extensions are optimal m the sense of coding gain. We then show that the STBCs from field extensions are information-lossy. However, we also show that the finite-signal-set capacity of the STBCs from field extensions can be improved by increasing the symbol rate of the STBCs. The simulation results presented show that our high-rate STBCs perform better than the rate-1 STBCs in terms of the bit error rate performance. Then we proceed to present a construction of high-rate STBCs from crossed-product algebras. After giving a sufficient condition on the crossed-product algebras under which the resulting STBCs are information-lossless, we identify few classes of crossed-product algebras that satisfy this sufficient condition and also some classes of crossed-product algebras which are division algebras which lead to full-diversity STBCs. We present simulation results to show that the STBCs from crossed-product algebras perform better than the well-known codes m terms of the bit error rate. Finally, we introduce the notion of asymptotic-information-lossless (AILL) designs and give a necessary and sufficient condition under which a linear design is an AILL design. Analogous to the condition that a design has to be a full-rank design to achieve the point corresponding to the maximum diversity of the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff, we show that a design has to be AILL to achieve the point corresponding to the maximum multiplexing gain of the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. Using the notion of AILL designs, we give a lower bound on the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff achieved by the STBCs from both field extensions and division algebras. The lower bound for STBCs obtained from division algebras indicates that they achieve the two extreme points, 1 e, zero multiplexing gain and zero diversity gain, of the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. Also, we show by simulation results that STBCs from division algebras achieves all the points on the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff for n transmit and n receive antennas, where n = 2, 3, 4.