The Effros-Shen algebra corresponding to an irrational number θ can be described by an inductive sequence of direct sums of matrix algebras, where the continued fraction expansion of θ encodes the dimensions of the summands, and how the matrix algebras at the nth level fit into the summands at the (n+1)th level. In recent work, Mitscher and Spielberg present an Effros-Shen algebra as the C*-algebra of a category of paths -- a generalization of a directed graph -- determined by the continued fraction expansion of θ. With this approach, the algebra is realized as the inductive limit of a sequence of infinite-dimensional, rather than finite-dimensional, subalgebras. In this thesis, the author defines a spectral triple in terms of the category of paths presentation of an Effros-Shen algebra, drawing on a construction by Christensen and Ivan. This thesis describes categories of paths, the example of Mitscher and Spielberg, and the spectral triple construction.

The author employs bundle theory to investigate dynamics on C*- algebras. Using methods old and new to define dynamics on topological spaces (often with additional structure), implications of the dynamics are investigated in the non-commutative setting, and in suitable situations the dynamics are classified. As a result, new Morita equivalence results are derived and new settings introduced in the study of crossed products, whether by group coactions or by actions of groups and groupoids.

This thesis presents a categorical approach to recover and extend some well-known results from the theory of $C^*$-correspondences. First, a detailed study on \emph{the enchilada category} is given. In this category, the objects are $C^*$-algebras, and morphisms are isomorphism classes of $C^*$-correspondences. In the \emph{equivariant enchilada category} $\mathcal{A}(C)$, all objects and morphisms are equipped with a locally compact group action satisfying certain conditions. These categories were used by Echterhoff, Kaliszweski, Quigg, and Raeburn for a study regarding a very fundamental tool to the representation theory: imprimitivity theorems. This work contains a construction of exact sequences in enchilada categories. One of the main results is that the reduced-crossed-product functor defined from $\mathcal{A}(C)$ to the enchilada category is not exact. The motivation was to determine whether one can have a better understanding of the Baum-Connes conjecture. Along the way numerous results are proven, showing that the enchilada category is rather strange. The next main study regards the functoriality of Cuntz-Pimsner algebras. A construction of a functor that maps $C^*$-correspondences to their Cuntz-Pimsner algebras is presented. The objects in the domain category are $C^*$-correspondences, and the morphisms are the isomorphism classes of $C^*$-correspondences satisfying certain conditions. Applications include a generalization of the well-known result of Muhly and Solel: Morita equivalent $C^*$-correspondences have Morita equivalent Cuntz-Pimsner algebras; as well as a generalization of the result of Kakariadis and Katsoulis: Regular shift equivalent $C^*$-correspondences have Morita equivalent Cuntz-Pimsner algebras.

The theory of frames for Hilbert spaces has become foundational in the study of wavelet analysis and has far-reaching applications in signal and image-processing. Originally, frames were first introduced in the early 1950's within the context of nonharmonic Fourier analysis by Duffin and Schaeffer. It was then in 2000, when M. Frank and D. R. Larson extended the concept of frames to the setting of Hilbert C*-modules, it was in that same paper where they asked for which C*-algebras does every Hilbert C*-module admit a frame. Since then there have been a few direct answers to this question, one being that every Hilbert A-module over a C*-algebra, A, that has faithful representation into the C*-algebra of compact operators admits a frame. Another direct answer by Hanfeng Li given in 2010, is that any C*-algebra, A, such that every Hilbert C*-module admits a frame is necessarily finite dimensional. In this thesis we give an overview of the general theory of frames for Hilbert C*-modules and results answering the frame admittance property. We begin by giving an overview of the existing classical theory of frames in Hilbert spaces as well as some of the preliminary theory of Hilbert C*-modules such as Morita equivalence and certain tensor product constructions of C*-algebras. We then show how some results of frames can be extended to the case of standard frames in countably generated Hilbert C*-modules over unital C*-algebras, namely the frame decomposition property and existence of the frame transform operator. We conclude by going through some proofs/constructions that answer the question of frame admittance for certain Hilbert C*-modules.

Almost commuting matrices, i.e. matrices with a sufficiently small commutator, may be nearly commuting, i.e. there may exist matrices close by which do commute. By referencing current literature, this condition is studied for fixed dimension, unitary, self-adjoint, and orthogonal matrices. These proofs are made more accessible and compared to each other, providing insight to possible future progress in the field.

This dissertation contains three main results. First, a generalization of Ionescu's theorem is proven. Ionescu's theorem describes an unexpected connection between graph C*-algebras and fractal geometry. In this work, this theorem is extended from ordinary directed graphs to higher-rank graphs. Second, a characterization is given of the Cuntz-Pimsner algebra associated to a tensor product of C*-correspondences. This is a generalization of a result by Kumjian about graphs algebras. This second result is applied to several important special cases of Cuntz-Pimsner algebras including topological graph algebras, crossed products by the integers and crossed products by completely positive maps. The result has meaningful interpretations in each context. The third result is an extension of the second result from an ordinary tensor product to a special case of Woronowicz's twisted tensor product. This result simultaneously characterizes Cuntz-Pimsner algebras of ordinary and graded tensor products and Cuntz-Pimsner algebras of crossed products by actions and coactions of discrete groups, the latter partially recovering earlier results of Hao and Ng and of Kaliszewski, Quigg and Robertson.

A tiling is a collection of vertex disjoint subgraphs called tiles. If the tiles are all isomorphic to a graph $H$ then the tiling is an $H$-tiling. If a graph $G$ has an $H$-tiling which covers all of the vertices of $G$ then the $H$-tiling is a perfect $H$-tiling or an $H$-factor. A goal of this study is to extend theorems on sufficient minimum degree conditions for perfect tilings in graphs to directed graphs. Corrádi and Hajnal proved that every graph $G$ on $3k$ vertices with minimum degree $delta(G)ge2k$ has a $K_3$-factor, where $K_s$ is the complete graph on $s$ vertices. The following theorem extends this result to directed graphs: If $D$ is a directed graph on $3k$ vertices with minimum total degree $delta(D)ge4k-1$ then $D$ can be partitioned into $k$ parts each of size $3$ so that all of parts contain a transitive triangle and $k-1$ of the parts also contain a cyclic triangle. The total degree of a vertex $v$ is the sum of $d^-(v)$ the in-degree and $d^+(v)$ the out-degree of $v$. Note that both orientations of $C_3$ are considered: the transitive triangle and the cyclic triangle. The theorem is best possible in that there are digraphs that meet the minimum degree requirement but have no cyclic triangle factor. The possibility of added a connectivity requirement to ensure a cycle triangle factor is also explored. Hajnal and Szemerédi proved that if $G$ is a graph on $sk$ vertices and $delta(G)ge(s-1)k$ then $G$ contains a $K_s$-factor. As a possible extension of this celebrated theorem to directed graphs it is proved that if $D$ is a directed graph on $sk$ vertices with $delta(D)ge2(s-1)k-1$ then $D$ contains $k$ disjoint transitive tournaments on $s$ vertices. We also discuss tiling directed graph with other tournaments. This study also explores minimum total degree conditions for perfect directed cycle tilings and sufficient semi-degree conditions for a directed graph to contain an anti-directed Hamilton cycle. The semi-degree of a vertex $v$ is $min{d^+(v), d^-(v)}$ and an anti-directed Hamilton cycle is a spanning cycle in which no pair of consecutive edges form a directed path.

In Iwasawa theory, one studies how an arithmetic or geometric object grows as its field of definition varies over certain sequences of number fields. For example, let $F/\mathbb{Q}$ be a finite extension of fields, and let $E:y^2 = x^3 + Ax + B$ with $A,B \in F$ be an elliptic curve. If $F = F_0 \subseteq F_1 \subseteq F_2 \subseteq \cdots F_\infty = \bigcup_{i=0}^\infty F_i$, one may be interested in properties like the ranks and torsion subgroups of the increasing family of curves $E(F_0) \subseteq E(F_1) \subseteq \cdots \subseteq E(F_\infty)$. The main technique for studying this sequence of curves when $\Gal(F_\infty/F)$ has a $p$-adic analytic structure is to use the action of $\Gal(F_n/F)$ on $E(F_n)$ and the Galois cohomology groups attached to $E$, i.e. the Selmer and Tate-Shafarevich groups. As $n$ varies, these Galois actions fit into a coherent family, and taking a direct limit one obtains a short exact sequence of modules $$0 \longrightarrow E(F_\infty) \otimes(\mathbb{Q}_p/\mathbb{Z}_p) \longrightarrow \Sel_E(F_\infty)_p \longrightarrow \Sha_E(F_\infty)_p \longrightarrow 0 $$ over the profinite group algebra $\mathbb{Z}_p[[\Gal(F_\infty/F)]]$. When $\Gal(F_\infty/F) \cong \mathbb{Z}_p$, this ring is isomorphic to $\Lambda = \mathbb{Z}_p[[T]]$, and the $\Lambda$-module structure of $\Sel_E(F_\infty)_p$ and $\Sha_E(F_\infty)_p$ encode all the information about the curves $E(F_n)$ as $n$ varies. In this dissertation, it will be shown how one can classify certain finitely generated $\Lambda$-modules with fixed characteristic polynomial $f(T) \in \mathbb{Z}_p[T]$ up to isomorphism. The results yield explicit generators for each module up to isomorphism. As an application, it is shown how to identify the isomorphism class of $\Sel_E(\mathbb{Q_\infty})_p$ in this explicit form, where $\mathbb{Q}_\infty$ is the cyclotomic $\mathbb{Z}_p$-extension of $\mathbb{Q}$, and $E$ is an elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}$ with good ordinary reduction at $p$, and possessing the property that $E(\mathbb{Q})$ has no $p$-torsion.