Inverse semigroups and combinatorial C*-algebras

We describe a special class of representations of an inverse semigroup S on Hilbert's space which we term tight. These representations are supported on a subset of the spectrum of the idempotent semilattice of S, called the tight spectrum, which is in turn shown to be precisely the closure of the space of ultra-filters, once filters are identified with semicharacters in a natural way. These representations are moreover shown to correspond to representations of the C*-algebra of the groupoid of germs for the action of S on its tight spectrum. We then treat the case of certain inverse semigroups constructed from semigroupoids, generalizing and inspired by inverse semigroups constructed from ordinary and higher rank graphs. The tight representations of this inverse semigroup are in one-to-one correspondence with representations of the semigroupoid, and consequently the semigroupoid algebra is given a groupoid model. The groupoid which arises from this construction is shown to be the same as the boundary path groupoid of Farthing, Muhly and Yeend, at least in the singly aligned, sourceless case. *Partially supported by CNPq.