Let M_n be the collection of n x n complex matrices equipped with operator norm. Suppose U, V \in M_n are two unitary matrices, each possessing a gap larger than Δin their spectrum, which satisfy ||UV-VU|| \le ε. Then it is shown that there are two unitary operators X and Y satisfying XY-YX = 0 and ||U-X|| + ||V-Y|| \le E(Δ^2/ε) (ε/Δ^2)^(1/6), where E(x) is a function growing slower than x^(1/k) for any positive integer k.
A unital $C^*$-algebra is called $N$-subhomogeneous if its irreducible representations are finite dimensional with dimension at most $N$. We extend this notion to operator systems, replacing irreducible representations by boundary representations. This is done by considering the matrix state space associated with an operator system and identifying the boundary representations as absolute matrix extreme points. We show that two $N$-subhomogeneous operator systems are completely order equivalent if and only if they are $N$-order equivalent. Moreover, we show that a unital $N$-positive map into a…
We show that every multivariable contractive weighted shift dilates to a tuple of commuting unitaries, and hence satisfies von Neumann's inequality. This answers a question of Lubin and Shields. We also exhibit a closely related $3$-tuple of commuting contractions, similar to Parrott's example, which does not dilate to a $3$-tuple of commuting unitaries.
We show that almost commuting real orthogonal matrices are uniformly close to exactly commuting real orthogonal matrices. We prove the same for symplectic unitary matrices. This is in contrast to the general complex case, where not all pairs of almost commuting unitaries are close to commuting pairs. Our techniques also yield results about almost normal matrices over the reals and the quaternions.
For models of non-interacting fermions moving within sites arranged on a surface in three dimensional space, there can be obstructions to finding localized Wannier functions. We show that such obstructions are $K$-theoretic obstructions to approximating almost commuting, complex-valued matrices by commuting matrices, and we demonstrate numerically the presence of this obstruction for a lattice model of the quantum Hall effect in a spherical geometry. The numerical calculation of the obstruction is straightforward, and does not require translational invariance or introducing a flux torus. We fu…
Quadratic & additive mappings on operator commuting elements in JBW*-algebras
Universidad de Granada（格拉纳达大学）；Czech Technical University in Prague（布拉格捷克理工大学）；Instituto de Matemáticas de la Universidad de Granada (IMAG)（格拉纳达大学数学研究所）
We show that a pair of almost commuting self-adjoint, symmetric matrices is close to a pair of commuting self-adjoint, symmetric matrices (in a uniform way). Moreover we prove that the same holds with self-dual in place of symmetric. The notion of self-dual Hermitian matrices is important in physics when studying fermionic systems that have time reversal symmetry. Since a symmetric, self-adjoint matrix is real, we get a real version of Huaxin Lin's famous theorem on almost commuting matrices. Similarly the self-dual case gives a version for matrices over the quaternions. We prove analogous res…
We give a proof of the Bott periodicity theorem for topological K-theory of C*-algebras based on Loring's treatment of Voiculescu's almost commuting matrices and Atiyah's rotation trick. We also explain how this relates to the Dirac operator on the circle; this uses Yu's localization algebra and an associated explicit formula for the pairing between the first K-homology and first K-theory groups of a (separable) C*-algebra.
We show that if A_1, A_2, ... , A_n are square matrices, each of them is either unitary or self-adjoint, and they almost commute with respect to the rank metric, then one can find commuting matrices B_1, B_2, ... , B_n that are close to the matrices A_i in the rank metric.
The behavior of fermionic systems depends on the geometry of the system and the symmetry class of the Hamiltonian and observables. Almost commuting matrices arise from band-projected position observables in such systems. One expects the mathematical behavior of almost commuting Hermitian matrices to depend on two factors. One factor will be the approximate polynomial relations satisfied by the matrices. The other factor is what algebra the matrices are in, either the matrices over A for A the real numbers, A the complex numbers or A the algebra of quaternions. There are potential obstructions …
We investigate which relations for families of commuting matrices are stable under small perturbations, or in other words, which commutative $C^*$-algebras $C(X)$ are matricially semiprojective. Extending the works of Davidson, Eilers-Loring-Pedersen, Lin and Voiculescu on almost commuting matrices, we identify the precise dimensional and cohomological restrictions for finite-dimensional spaces $X$ and thus obtain a complete characterization: $C(X)$ is matricially semiprojective if and only if $\dim(X)\leq 2$ and $H^2(X;\mathbb{Q})=0$. We give several applications to lifting problems for commu…
This paper investigates the transformation of determinants of pairs of Fredholm operators with trace class commutators. We study the extent to which the functional calculus commutes, modulo operator ideals, with projections in a finitely summable Fredholm module. As an application, we recover in particular some results of R. Carey and J. Pincus on determinants and Tate tame symbols. Additionally, we obtain variational formulas for joint torsion.
Let $ε>0$ be a positive number. Is there a number $δ>0$ satisfying the following? Given any pair of unitaries $u$ and $v$ in a unital simple $C^*$-algebra $A$ with $[v]=0$ in $K_1(A)$ for which $$ \|uv-vu\|<\dt, $$ there is a continuous path of unitaries $\{v(t): t\in [0,1]\}\subset A$ such that $$ v(0)=v, v(1)=1 \and \|uv(t)-v(t)u\|<ε\forall t\in [0,1]. $$ An answer is given to this question when $A$ is assumed to be a unital simple $C^*$-algebra with tracial rank no more than one. Let $C$ be a unital separable amenable simple $C^*$-algebra with tracial rank no more than one which also satisf…
We prove that any product of two non-abelian free groups, $Γ=\mathbb F_m\times\mathbb F_k$, for $m,k\geq 2$, is not Hilbert-Schmidt stable. This means that there exist asymptotic representations $π_n:Γ\rightarrow \text{U}({d_n})$ with respect to the normalized Hilbert-Schmidt norm which are not close to actual representations. As a consequence, we prove the existence of contraction matrices $A,B$ such that $A$ almost commutes with $B$ and $B^*$, with respect to the normalized Hilbert-Schmidt norm, but $A,B$ are not close to any matrices $A',B'$ such that $A'$ commutes with $B'$ and $B'^*$. Thi…
We give a systematic account of the various pictures of KK-theory for real C*-algebras, proving natural isomorphisms between the groups that arise from each picture. As part of this project, we develop the universal properties of KK-theory, and we use CRT-structures to prove that a natural transformation from F(A) to G(A) between homotopy equivalent, stable, half-exact functors defined on real C*-algebras is an isomorphism provided it is an isomorphism on the smaller class of C*-algebras. Finally, we develop E-theory for real C*-algebras and use that to obtain new negative results regarding th…
Lin's theorem states that for all $ε> 0$, there is a $δ> 0$ such that for all $n \geq 1$ if self-adjoint contractions $A,B \in M_n(\mathbb{C})$ satisfy $\|[A,B]\|< δ$ then there are self-adjoint contractions $A',B' \in M_n(\mathbb{C})$ with $[A',B']=0$ and $\|A-A'\|,\|B-B'\|<ε$. We present fully explained and corrected details of the approach in arXiv:0808.2474, which was the first version of Lin's theorem to provide asymptotic estimates. We also apply this method to the case where $B$ is a normal matrix with spectrum lying in some nice 1-dimensional subset of $\mathbb{C}$.
We show that for a commuting n-tuple of hermitian operators, with perfect spectrum, the essential centre of the algebra of operators commuting with the n-tuple mod a diagonalization ideal arises from the C*-algebra of the n-tuple. This answers a question for normal operators and the Hilbert-Schmidt class connected to K-theory for almost normal operators.
The closed symmetrized tridisc $Γ_3$ and its distinguished boundary $bΓ_3$ are the sets $Γ_3=\{ (z_1+z_2+z_3,z_1z_2+z_2z_3+z_3z_1,z_1z_2z_3): \,|z_i|\leq 1, i=1,2,3 \}\subseteq \mathbb C^3$ $bΓ_3=\{ (z_1+z_2+z_3,z_1z_2+z_2z_3+z_3z_1,z_1z_2z_3): \,|z_i|= 1, i=1,2,3 \}\subseteq Γ_3.$ A triple of commuting operators $(S_1,S_2,P)$ defined on a Hilbert space $\mathcal H$ for which $Γ_3$ is a spectral set is called a $Γ_3$-contraction. In this article we show by a counter example that there are $Γ_3$-contractions which do not dilate. It is also shown that under certain conditions a $Γ_3$-contraction…
Let $M\subset B(\mathcal H)$ be a von Neumann algebra acting on the Hilbert space $\mathcal H$. We prove that $M$ is finite if and only if, for every $x\in M$ and for all vectors $ξ,η\in\mathcal H$, the coefficient function $u\mapsto \langle uxu^*ξ|η\rangle$ is weakly almost periodic on the topological group $U_M$ of unitaries in $M$ (equipped with the weak or strong operator topology). The main device is the unique invariant mean on the $C^*$-algebra $\operatorname{WAP}(U_M)$ of weakly almost periodic functions on $U_M$. Next, we prove that every coefficient function $u\mapsto \langle uxu^*ξ|…
Given a Banach space X and a bounded linear operator T on X, a subspace Y of X is almost invariant under T if TY is a subspace of Y+F for some finite-dimensional ``error'' F. In this paper, we study subspaces that are almost invariant under every operator in an algebra A of operators acting on X. We show that if A is norm closed then the dimensions of ``errors'' corresponding to operators in A must be uniformly bounded. Also, if A is generated by a finite number of commuting operators and has an almost invariant half-space (that is, a subspace with both infinite dimension and infinite codimens…
We extend Jordan's notion of principal angles to work for two subspaces of quaternionic space, and so have a method to analyze two orthogonal projections in M_n(A) for A the real, complex or quaternionic field (or skew field). From this we derive an algorithm to turn almost commuting projections into commuting projections that minimizes the sum of the displacements of the two projections. We quickly prove what we need using the universal real C*-algebra generated by two projections.
A determinant in algebraic $K$-theory is associated to any two almost commuting Fredholm operators. On the other hand, one can calculate a homologically defined invariant known as joint torsion. We answer in the affirmative a conjecture of Richard Carey and Joel Pincus, namely that these two invariants agree. In particular, this implies that joint torsion is norm continuous, depends only on the images of the operators modulo trace class, and satisfies the expected Steinberg relations. Moreover, we show that the determinant invariant of two commuting operators can be computed simply as a determ…
A closed subspace of a Banach space $\cX$ is almost-invariant for a collection $\cS$ of bounded linear operators on $\cX$ if for each $T \in \cS$ there exists a finite-dimensional subspace $\cF_T$ of $\cX$ such that $T \cY \subseteq \cY + \cF_T$. In this paper, we study the existence of almost-invariant subspaces of infinite dimension and codimension for various classes of Banach and Hilbert space operators. We also examine the structure of operators which admit a maximal commuting family of almost-invariant subspaces. In particular, we prove that if $T$ is an operator on a separable Hilbert s…
We examine the various indices defined on pairs of almost commuting unitary matrices that can detect pairs that are far from commuting pairs. We do this in two symmetry classes, that of general unitary matrices and that of self-dual matrices, with an emphasis on quantitative results. We determine which values of the norm of the commutator guarantee that the indices are defined, where they are equal, and what quantitative results on the distance to a pair with a different index are possible. We validate a method of computing spin Chern numbers that was developed with Hastings and only conjectur…
