Groupoid and algebra of the infinite quantum spin chain (Q6115707)

The authors continue to develop the groupoid approach to quantum mechanics introduced in previous papers. After a review of the notions of \({C}^*\)-algebras, \({W}^*\)-algebras, left-Hilbert algebras, groupoids and groupoid algebras, the authors show how these notions naturally arise in the Schwinger description of the quantum mechanics of an infinite spin chain. The groupoid whose space of objects \(\Omega_\infty\) is made of sequences \((x_0,x_1,x_2,...)\) with \(x_k\in \{0,1\}\) and whose transitions are given by the action of a group \(\Gamma\subset \Omega_\infty\) containing sequences with a finite number of non-null elements describes an infinite chain of qubits where only the transitions that can flip a finite number of them are allowed. More details about the groupoid approach to this quantum system are presented. The role of the algebraic picture is to describe certain features of quantum theory which can not be described in the standard picture based on the use of a Hilbert space and its self-adjoint operators.