The space of traces of the free group and free products of matrix algebras (Q6663136)

Let \(G\) be a group. A trace on \(G\) is a function \(\varphi: G \rightarrow \mathbb{C}\) which is positive definite, conjugation invariant, and such that \(\varphi(e)=1\). Traces which cannot be written as a proper convex combination of other traces are called characters. The space of traces of \(G\) is a compact convex set with the point-wise convergence topology. The main findings of the paper under review are as follows.\N\NTheorem 1.1: Let \(G_{1}\) and \(G_{2}\) be infinite countable abelian groups and let \(G_{0}\) be any countable group. Then the space of traces on the free product \(G =G_{0}\ast G_{1}\ast G_{2}\) is a Poulsen simplex.\N\NTheorem 1.4: The space of traces of an amalgamated free product of finite non-trivial groups is not a Poulsen simplex.\N\NTheorem 1.5: Let \(X_{1}\) and \(X_{2}\) be two compact metrizable spaces with no isolated points and let \(A_{1}=C(X_{1})\), \(A_{2}=C(X_{2})\) be the corresponding \(C^{\ast}\)-algebras of continuous functions. Consider the free product \(A=A_{0} \ast A_{1}\ast A_{2}\) where \(A_{0}\) is any unital separable \(C^{\ast}\)-algebra which admits at least one trace. Then the space of traces of \(A\) is a Poulsen simplex.\N\NLet \(\mathbf{M}_{n}=\mathbf{M}_{n}(\mathbb{C})\) be the \(C^{\ast}\)-algebra of \(n \times n\) complex matrices.\N\NTheorem 1.6: The trace simplex of the free product \(\mathbf{M}_{n} \ast \mathbf{M}_{n}\) is a Poulsen simplex for \(n \geq 4\).\N\NFrom Theorem 1.1 the authors deduce two interesting consequences:\N\NCorollary 1.2: The space of traces of a free group \(F_{d}\) on \(2\leq d \leq \infty\) generators is a Pouslen simplex. \N\NCorollary 1.3: If \(G\) is the fundamental group of a hyperbolic surface of finite volume, then the space of traces on \(G\) admits a face which is a Poulsen simplex.