Monic representations of the Cuntz algebra and Markov measures (Q2253158)

A representation of the Cuntz algebra \(O_N\) on a Hilbert space \({\mathcal H }\) is called ``monic'' if there exists a cyclic vector \(\phi\) in \(H\) for the abelian subalgebra \({\mathcal U}_N\), i.e., \[ \overline{\text{Span}}\{S_IS^{*}_I\phi: I \text{ is a finite word}\}={\mathcal H}. \] The problem of classifying the monic representations is the subject of this paper and the authors prove the following {Theorem.} Let \((S_i)_{i\in Z_{N}}\) be a representation of \(O_N\). Then the representation is monic if and only if it is unitarily equivalent to a representation associated with a monic system. Moreover, the representations of \(O_N\) associated with two monic systems \((\mu, (f_i)_{i\in \mathbb{Z}_N})\) and \(({\mu}^{\prime}, (f^{\prime}_i)_{i\in \mathbb{Z}_N})\) are equivalent if and only if the measures \(\mu\) and \({\mu}^{\prime}\) are equivalent. Further, it is also proved that two such nonnegative representations are disjoint if and only if the associated measures are mutually singular. Subsequently, two classes of examples of monic representations coming from Markov measures and atomic representations, respectively, are given and studied. It is shown that different parameters yield disjoint representations and then the Markov measures are mutually singular. In one example of Section 3, the representations of \(O_N\) which have a one-dimensional cyclic \(S*_i\) invariant state are shown to be exactly those obtained from a monic system with the Kakutani measures. Finally, the authors also describe how Nelson's universal representation (of an abelian algebra, see [\textit{E. Nelson}, Topics in dynamics. I: Flows. Princeton University Press and University of Tokyo Press (1969; Zbl 0197.10702)]) carries a representation of the Cuntz algebra which is also universal in the sense that it contains all nonnegative monic representations.