Lifting commuting pairs of C1 algebras

Given a commuting pair $\text{A}$₁, $\text{A}$₂ of abelian $\text{C}{}^1$ subalgebras of the Calkin algebra, we look for a commuting pair $\text{B}$₁,$\text{B}$₂ of $\text{C}{}^1$ subalgebras of $\text{B(H)}$ which project onto $\text{A}$₁ and $\text{A}$₂. We do not insist that $\text{B}$_i, be abelian, so $\text{B}$_i, may contain nontrivial compact operators. If X is the joint spectrum σ($\text{A}$₁, $\text{A}$₂), it is shown that the existence of a pair $\text{B}$₁, $\text{B}$₂ depends only on the element τ in Ext(X) determined by $\text{A}$₁, $\text{A}$₂. The set L(X) of those τ in Ext(X) which “lift” in this sense is shown to be a subgroup of Ext(X) when Ext(X) is Hausdorff, and also when $\text{A}$_i are singly generated. In this latter case, L(X) can be explicitly calculated for large classes of joint spectra. These results are applied to lift certain pairs of commuting elements of the Calkin algebra to pairs of commuting operators.