Non-homogeneous quantum Markov states and quantum Markov fields (Q1395791)

As is well known, one of the basic open problems in quantum probability is the construction of a theory of quantum Markov fields, namely, quantum Markov processes with multi-dimensional index set. This program concerns the generalization of the theory of classical Markov fields to the non-commutative setting, naturally arising in quantum statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. In this paper the authors deal with the most general one-dimensional spin model, in line with the above-mentioned program. More precisely, the framework in their work is the study of the class of Markov states on the quasi-local algebra \({\mathcal U}\) naturally associated to the non-homogeneous one-side backward or forward or two-side spin chain. Following the strategy developed in, e.g. \textit{L. Accardi} and \textit{A. Frigerio} [Proc. R. Ir. Acad., Sect. A 83, 251-263 (1983; Zbl 0534.46045)], they show that, even in a quite general situation, it is possible to recover for a Markov state \(\varphi\), a non-homogeneous classical Markov chain described by the law \(\mu\) on the space \(\Omega\) of all trajectories, together with a measurable field \(\{ \varphi_{\omega}; \omega \in \Omega \}\) of states on the quasi-local algebra \({\mathcal U}\). The states \(\varphi_{\omega}\) are canonically recovered by states \(\psi_{\omega}\) on suitable \(C^*\)-inductive limits \({\mathcal B}_{\omega}\), which are Markov states with respect to sequences of Umegaki conditional expectations whose ranges are all von Neumann factors. The pair \(( (\Omega, \mu)\), \(\{ \varphi_{\omega}\); \(\omega \in \Omega \})\) uniquely determines the Markov state \(\varphi\) under consideration. In other words, the authors obtain a disintegration \[ \varphi = \int_{\Omega} \varphi_{\omega} \mu( \text{d} \omega) \] of the Markov state \(\varphi\) into elementary Markov states \(\{ \varphi_{\omega} \}\) in the sense explained above (Theorem 3.2, p.334, in Section 3). Next, the possibility to obtain the converse of the disintegration result is analysed, and they prove a reconstruction theorem (Theorem 4.1, p.337, in Section 4) for the class of Markov states on non-homogeneous spin chains. Moreover, the authors investigate links between Markov states and Ising potentials on chains, and they obtain also a natural connection with the definition of Markov property in terms of quasi-conditional expectation (Theorem 5.1, p.340, in Section 5). This theorem provides the equivalence between the definition of the Markov property by quasi-conditional expectations and that given directly by generalized conditional expectations.