Unbounded GNS representations of a *-algebra in a Krein space (Q909197)

In the algebraic approach of the quantum field theory each state is a normalized continuous Hermitian linear functional W on the Borchers algebra \({\mathfrak A}({\mathcal S})\). Any such state generates, by the usual Gelfand-Naimark-Segal (GNS) representation, either a Hilbert space, if W is a positive functional, or an indefinite inner product space, if W is not positive. The authors develop the study of the second case, which is suitable to the massless or gauge fields. Using the notion of abstract conditional expectation, which generalizes the involutory *-automorphism on \({\mathfrak A}({\mathcal S})\) from some previous works, they give in theorem 3 the conditions under which the GNS construction yields a Krein space. Another set of results concern the irreducibility of the GNS representation of the *-algebra \({\mathfrak A}\), which is discussed in terms of invariant dual pair of subspaces.