Quantum locally compact metric spaces (Q1932411)

It is well known that a given (unital) \(C^*\)-algebra \({\mathcal A}\) can be interpreted as a (compact) non-commutative topological space \(X\). It is an extremely interesting and challenging problem to endow \(X\) with a natural metric \(d\) so that the pair \((X, d)\) becomes a ``quantum metric space''. There are several independent ideas of how to introduce such a metric; one of the ideas is due to \textit{M. A. Rieffel} (see, e.g., [Doc. Math., J. DMV 4, 559--600 (1999; Zbl 0945.46052)]). Rieffel's metric \(d\) is defined in terms of the so-called Lipschitz semi-norms on the state space \(S({\mathcal A})\) of the unital \(C^*\)-algebra \({\mathcal A}\). In the paper under review, the author lays out the foundation of quantum metric spaces which are locally compact, i.e., \({\mathcal A}\) is not necessarily a unital \(C^*\)-algebra. In this non-compact situation, Rieffel's technique is not totally applicable and warrants certain tune-ups, which the author skillfully achieves using an old result of \textit{R. L. Dobrushin} on the so-called extended Monge-Kantorovich metric for non-compact metric spaces [Theor. Probab. Appl. 15, 458--486 (1970); translation from Teor. Veroyatn. Primen. 15, 469--497 (1970; Zbl 0264.60037)]. Some useful examples, including the Moyal plane example, are considered.