Commutators of free random variables (Q1974809)

The authors study the distribution of the commutator of two free random variables. The main result is an explicit formula for the \(R\)-transform of the commutator in terms of the \(R\)-transforms of its constituents and Speicher's combinatorial convolution. It is shown that the distribution of \(c:=i(ab-ba)\) is even and depends only on the even coefficients of the \(R\)-transform of \(a\) and \(b\). There is another formula for the moments of \(c\) and still another one for the \(S\)-transform of the distribution of the properly normed square of \(c\) in terms of the distributions of the squares of \(a\) and \(b\). It turns out that if \(a\) and \(b\) have even distributions, then their commutator and their anticommutator have the same distribution. Many illuminating examples are given.