Tomita's lectures on observable algebras in Hilbert space (Q2656626)

The subject of this book is the theory of observable algebras. This theory was presented in the lectures of Tomita at Kyushu University and the motivation for this theory is the study of observables in quantum mechanics. The sources for this book are the notes of Kurose and of the author from Tomita's lectures on the subject, two lectures of Tomita at RIMS Kôkyûroku in 1969 and in 1970, and a lecture given by Tomita at the ``Japan-US seminar on \(C^*\)-algebras and Applications to Physics'' in Kyoto in 1970. Let \(\mathcal H\) be a Hilbert space, \(\mathcal H^*\) the dual of \(\mathcal H\) and \(B(\mathcal H)\) the algebra of bounded linear operators on \(\mathcal H\). If \(x \in \mathcal H\), define a linear functional \(x^*\) on \(\mathcal H\), by \(y\mapsto (y|x)\), where \((\cdot|\cdot )\) is the inner product of \(\mathcal H\). A quartet \((A_0, x, y^*, r)\) with \(A_0 \in B(\mathcal H)\), \(x, y \in \mathcal H\) and \(r \in \mathbb C\) is called a quartet observable on \(\mathcal H\). The set of all quartet observables is denoted by \(Q^*(\mathcal H)\). The author defines the operations \(A+B, AB, \lambda A\) for \(A, B \in Q^*(\mathcal H)\) and \(\lambda \in \mathbb C\), an involution \(A\rightarrow A^{\sharp}\) and a norm on \(Q^*(\mathcal H)\). The space \(Q^*(\mathcal H)\) equipped with these operations, involution and norm becomes a Banach-\(*\) algebra. A~\(*\)-subalgebra of the Banach \(*\)-algebra \(Q^*(\mathcal H)\) is called a \(Q^*\)-algebra and a closed \(*\)-subalgebra of the Banach \(*\)-algebra \(Q^*(\mathcal H)\) is called a \(CQ^*\)-algebra. The trio \((A_0, x, y^*)\) with \(A_0 \in B(\mathcal H)\), \(x, y \in \mathcal H\) is called a trio observable on \(\mathcal H\) and the set of all trio observables is denoted by \(T^*(\mathcal H)\). The author defines in a similar way \(A+B, AB, \lambda A,\) for \(A, B \in T^*(\mathcal H)\) and \(\lambda \in \mathbb C\), an involution \(A\rightarrow A^\sharp\) and a norm on \(T^*(\mathcal H)\). The space \(T^*(\mathcal H)\) equipped with these operations, involution and norm becomes a Banach-\(*\) algebra. A \(*\)-subalgebra of the Banach \(*\)-algebra \(T^*(\mathcal H)\) is called a \(T^*\)-algebra and a closed \(*\)-subalgebra of the Banach \(*\)-algebra \(T^*(\mathcal H)\) is called a \(CT^*\)-algebra. The \(Q^*\)-algebras, the \(CQ^*\)-algebras, the \(T^*\)-algebras and the \(CT^*\)-algebras are called observable algebras. The author is a student of Tomita and in this book he provides a systematic study of the theory of observable algebras. This is an important contribution to the literature, since this theory was never presented before. In Chapter 2 it is proved that the study of \(Q^*\)-algebras results in the study of \(T^*\)-algebras, which is the principal object of study in the rest of the book. In the same chapter, the author also investigates the following subjects: functional calculus for self-adjoint trio observables, commutants and bicommutants of a \(T^*\)-algebra and automorphisms of a \(T^*\)-algebra. In Chapter 3, a von Neumann type density theorem and a Kaplansky type density theorem for \(T^*\)-algebras are proved. Chapter 4 is devoted to the study of the structure of \(CT^*\)-algebras. A~decomposition theory for \(CT^*\)-algebras is developed and results on the classification of these algebras are obtained. The final chapter contains applications of the theory. The standard \(T^*\)-algebras are defined and studied. These algebras are closely related to Tomita-Takesaki theory. Basic results on operator algebras are summarized in the Appendix. The text is clearly written and complete proofs of the results are given. In this book, the operator part of the observable algebras is assumed to be bounded. As the author remarks, the operator observables that appear in quantum mechanics are unbounded and ``it is necessary to study an unbounded observable algebra''.