Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2015
We define an equivalence relation between bimodules over maximal abelian self-adjoint algebras (MASA bimodules), which we call spatial Morita equivalence. We prove that two reflexive MASA bimodules are spatially Morita equivalent if and only if their (essential) bilattices are isomorphic. We also prove that if are bilattices that correspond to reflexive MASA bimodules , and is an onto bilattice homomorphism, then
(i) if is synthetic, then is synthetic;
(ii) if contains a non-zero compact (or a finite or a rank 1) operator, then also contains a non-zero compact (or a finite or a rank 1) operator.