On the index and roots of time ordered product systems (Q2062928)

A product system (over \(\mathbb R_+\)) is a family \((E_t)\) \((t\in \mathbb R_+)\) of Hilbert spaces or more general \(C^*\)-correspondences \(E_t\) with associative identifications \(E_s\otimes E_t=E_{s+t}\), written as \(x_s\otimes y_t\mapsto x_sy_t\), plus some marginal conditions at \(t=0\). A unit is, roughly, a semigroup \((u_t)\) of elements \(u_t \in E_t\), that is, \(u_su_t=u_{s+t}\) plus a marginal condition. An addit (= additive unit) for a normalized unit \((u_t)\) is a familiy \((a_t)\) satisfying \(a_{s+t}=u_sa_t+a_su_t\). A root is an addit for \((u_t)\) satisfying \(\langle u_t,a_t\rangle=0\). There are tecnical conditions (typically, measurability in the case of Hilbert spaces and continuity in the case of general correspondences), which we do not phrase here. Roots can be added and multiplied by elements from the ring (\(\mathbb C\) in the case of Hilbert spaces). On can show that a root \((a_t)\) is determined by \(a_1\) and that \(\langle(a_t),(a'_t)\rangle:=\langle a_1,a'_1\rangle\) turns the set of all roots into a \(C^*\)-correspondence~\(R\). \textit{B. V. R. Bhat} et al. [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 370, No.~4, 2605--2637 (2018; Zbl 1393.46051)] (where all these notions have been discussed in the case of Hilbert spaces) showed that \(R\) (or better its dimension) is the index of the product system of Hilbert spaces in question. The author of the present paper pushes this forward to general product systems (where a simple dimension is no longer sufficient to characterize the correspondence \(R\) up to isomorphism).