Quantum random walks and vanishing of the second Hochschild cohomology (Q934992)

Let \(\mathcal{A}\) be a unital \(^*\)-algebra of Hilbert space operators and let \(\mathcal{L}: \mathcal{A} \to \mathcal{A}\) be a \(^*\)-preserving, conditionally completely positive map such that \(\mathcal{L}(1)=0\). A natural \(GNS\)-type construction provides a pre-Hilbert \(\mathcal{A}-\mathcal{A}\) bimodule \(M\) with the left action \(\pi:\mathcal{A} \to {L}_a(M)\) and a bimodule derivation \(\delta:\mathcal{A} \to M\) such that \(\mathcal{L}(ab) - a \mathcal{L}(b) - \mathcal{L}(a) b = \langle \delta(a), \delta(b) \rangle_M\) for all \(a,b \in \mathcal{A}\). By a formal quantum random walk for \(L\) is understood a \(^*\)-homomorphism from \(\mathcal{A}\) to the algebra of formal power series \({L}_a(\mathcal{A} \oplus M)[[t]]\) which is a higher order deformation of the map \(a \to \left(\begin{smallmatrix} a + t^2 \mathcal{L}(a) & t \delta(a^*)^* \\ t \delta(a) & \pi(a)\end{smallmatrix}\right)\). The authors show that if the second cohomology group \(H^2(\mathcal{A}, L_a(\mathcal{A} \oplus M))\) is trivial then a formal quantum random walk for \(\mathcal{L}\) exists. The motivation behind the result lies in the possibility of constructing quantum stochastic dilations of quantum dynamical semigroups (with \(\mathcal{L}\) viewed as a formal generator of such a semigroup) via quantum random walk approximations, see [\textit{J. M. Lindsay} and \textit{K. R. Parthasarathy}, Sankhya, Ser. A 50, No.~2, 151--170 (1988; Zbl 0771.60056)] or [\textit{D. Goswami} and \textit{K. B. Sinha}, Quantum stochastic processes and noncommutative geometry, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2007; Zbl 1144.81002)].