Quantum Brownian motion on non-commutative manifolds: Construction, deformation and exit times (Q661312)

For a skew-symmetric real matrix \(\theta\), a non-commutative \((4n-1)\)-dimensional sphere \(S^{4n-1}_{\theta}\) is the universal \(C^*\)-algebra on \(4n\) generators \(\{z_1,\bar z_1,\dots, z_{2n}, \bar z_{2n}\}\) subject to the following relations: (i) \((z_i)^*=\bar z_i\); (ii) \(z_iz_j=\exp(2\pi i\theta_{ij})z_jz_i\), \(\bar z_iz_j=\exp(2\pi i\theta_{ji})z_j\bar z_i\); and (iii) \(z_1\bar z_1+\dots+z_{2n}\bar z_{2n}=1\) [\textit{A.~Connes} and \textit{M.~Dubois-Violette}, Commun. Math. Phys. 230, No.~3, 539--579 (2002; Zbl 1026.58005)]. If the ``deformation'' \(\theta=0\), then one gets an equation of the regular \((4n-1)\)-dimensional sphere in the commutative (Euclidean) coordinates \(z_i\); hence the name. The authors of the paper under review extend some results of stochastic (commutative) geometry to the case of non-commutative spheres and other non-commutative manifolds. In particular, the definitions of quantum Brownian motion and quantum Gaussian process are introduced and studied; the formulation of quantum exit time is introduced and an explicit calculation of such an exit time for Rieffel's non-commutative tori is given.