Gelfand-Naimark-Segal construction
In functional analysis, given a C*-algebra A, the GNS construction establishes a correspondence between cyclic *-representationss of A and states of A. The correspondence is shown by an explicit construction of the *-representation from the state. The content of the GNS construction is contained in the first theorem below, although the designation of construction usually just refers to the second part of that theorem.
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2 Irreducibility 3 References |
A *-representation of a C*-algebra on a Hilbert space H is a *-morphism
π from A into the algebra of bounded operators on H which is non-degenerate, that is the space of vectors π(x) ξ is dense as x ranges through A and ξ ranges through H. Note that if A has an identity, non-degeneracy means exactly π is unit-preserving.
A state on C*-algebra A is a positive linear functional f of norm 1. If A has a multiplicative unit element this condition is equivalent to f(1) = 1.
Theorem. The set of states is a compact convex set under the weak-* topology.
In the case of C*-algebras with identity, this follows immediately from the Banach-Alaoglu theorem.
Note to reader: In our definition of inner product, the conjugate linear argument is the first argument and the linear argument is the second argument. This is done for reasons of compatibility with the physics literature. Thus the order of arguments in some of the constructions below is exactly the opposite from those in many mathematics texbooks.
Theorem. Let A be a C*-algebra. If π is a *-representation of
A on the Hilbert space H with cyclic vector ξ having norm 1. Then
Conversely, given a state ρ there is a *-representation π of A with distinguished cyclic vector ξ such that its associated state is ρ
The construction proceeds as follows: Assume A has a unit element. A can be equipped with a singular inner product
States and representations
is a state of A. Given *-representations π, π' each with unit norm cyclic vectors ξ, ξ' and having the same associated states, then π, π' are unitarily equivalent representations; moreover, the unitary operator U that implements the unitary equivalence can be chosen to map ξ to ξ'.
for every x in A.
Here singular means that the sesquilinear form fails to satisfy the non-degeneracy property of inner product. However, we take the quotient space of the vector subspace A by the vector subspace I consisting of elements x of A satisfying ρ(x* x)=0. The vector space I is actually a left ideal of A, so the elements of A act on A/I as operators on the left. H is then taken to be the Cauchy completion of A/I, equipped with the quotient norm. The cyclic vector ξ is the image of 1 in A/I.
In case A does not have a unit element, consider the C*-algebra A1 obtained from A by adjoining a multiplicative identity. Any state f on A extends uniquely to a state f1 on A1. Apply the previous construction to f1.
This construction is at the heart of the proof of the Gelfand-Naimark theorem characterizing C*-algebras as algebras of operators.
Also of significance is the relation between irreducible *-representations and extreme points of the convex set of states. A representation π on H is irreducible iff there are no closed subspaces of H which are invariant under all the operators π(x)
other than H itself and the trivial subspace {0}.
Theorem. Let A be a C*-algebra. If π is a *-representation of
A on the Hilbert space H with unit norm cyclic vector ξ, then
π is irreducible if and only if the corresponding state f is an extreme point of the convex set of states.
To prove this result one notes that given a self-adjoint operator T on H which commutes with all the operators π(x), and is such that
0 ≤ T ≤ 1 in the operator order,
Extremal states are usually called pure states.
The theorems above for C*-algebras are valid more generally in the context of B*-algebrass with approximate identity.Irreducibility
is a positive linear functional on A (not in general a state) dominated by f. This map is easily shown to be a bijection. Now the representation π is irreducible iff the only operators which commute with all the π(x) are scalar multiples of the identity. Thus a necessary and sufficient condition π be irreducible is that the set of states dominated by f consist only of scalar multiples of f. This condition on f is equivalent to f being an extreme point.