Explicit Construction and Uniqueness for Universal Operator Algebras of Directed Graphs

Given a directed graph, there exist a universal operator algebraand universal C*-algebra associated to the directed graph. Inthis paper we give intrinsic constructions for these objects.We also provide an explicit construction for the maximal C*-algebraof an operator algebra. We discuss uniqueness of the universalalgebras for finite graphs, showing that for finite graphs thegraph is an isomorphism invariant for the universal operatoralgebra of a directed graph. We show that the underlying undirectedgraph is a Banach algebra isomorphism invariant for the universalC*-algebra of a directed graph.