Let S be an operator system -- a self-adjoint linear subspace of a unital C*-algebra A such that contains 1 and A=C*(S) is generated by S. A boundary representation for S is an irreducible representation πof C*(S) on a Hilbert space with the property that $π\restriction_S$ has a unique completely positive extension to C*(S). The set $\partial_S$ of all (unitary equivalence classes of) boundary representations is the noncommutative counterpart of the Choquet boundary of a function system $S\subseteq C(X)$ that separates points of X.
It is known that the closure of the Choquet boundary of a function system S is the Silov boundary of X relative to S. The corresponding noncommutative problem of whether every operator system has "sufficiently many" boundary representations was formulated in 1969, but has remained unsolved despite progress on related issues. In particular, it was unknown if $\partial_S$ is nonempty for generic S. In this paper we show that every separable operator system has sufficiently many boundary representations. Our methods use separability in an essential way.
A (finite or countably infinite) set G of generators of an abstract C*-algebra A is called hyperrigid if for every faithful representation of A on a Hilbert space $A\subseteq \mathcal B(H)$ and every sequence of unital completely positive linear maps $ϕ_1, ϕ_2,...$ from $\mathcal B(H)$ to itself, $$ \lim_{n\to\infty}\|ϕ_n(g)-g\|=0, \forall g\in G \implies \lim_{n\to\infty}\|ϕ_n(a)-a\|=0, \forall a\in A. $$ We show that one can determine whether a given set G of generators is hyperrigid by examining the noncommutative Choquet boundary of the operator space spanned by $G\cup G^*$. We present a v…
The noncommutative Choquet boundary and the C*-envelope of operator systems of the form Span{1,T,T*}, where T is a Hilbert space operator with normal-like features, are studied. Such operators include normal operators, k-normal operators, subnormal operators, and Toeplitz operators. Our main result is the determination of the noncommutative Choquet boundary for an operator system generated by an irreducible periodic weighted unilateral shift operator.
We classify operator systems $S\subseteq \mathcal B(H)$ that act on finite dimensional Hilbert spaces by making use of the noncommutative Choquet boundary. S is said to be {\em reduced} when its boundary ideal is 0. In the category of operator systems, that property functions as semisimplicity does in the category of complex Banach algebras. We construct explicit examples of reduced operator systems using sequences of "parameterizing maps" $Γ_k: \mathbb C^r\to \mathcal B(H_k)$, $k=1,..., N$. We show that every reduced operator system is isomorphic to one of these, and that two sequences give r…
We introduce a notion of noncommutative Choquet simplex, or briefly an nc simplex, that generalizes the classical notion of a simplex. While every simplex is an nc simplex, there are many more nc simplices. They arise naturally from C*-algebras and in noncommutative dynamics. We characterize nc simplices in terms of their geometry and in terms of structural properties of their corresponding operator systems. There is a natural definition of nc Bauer simplex that generalizes the classical definition of a Bauer simplex. We show that a compact nc convex set is an nc Bauer simplex if and only if i…
We show that every operator system (and hence every unital operator algebra) has sufficiently many boundary representations to generate the C*-envelope.
The noncommutative Gurarij space $\mathbb{\mathbb{\mathbb{NG}}}$, initially defined by Oikhberg, is a canonical object in the theory of operator spaces. As the Fra\"ıssé limit of the class of finite-dimensional nuclear operator spaces, it can be seen as the noncommutative analogue of the classical Gurarij Banach space. In this paper, we prove that the automorphism group of $\mathbb{\mathbb{NG}}$ is extremely amenable, i.e.\ any of its actions on compact spaces has a fixed point. The proof relies on the Dual Ramsey Theorem, and a version of the Kechris--Pestov--Todorcevic correspondence in the …
We explore the finite-dimensional part of the non-commutative Choquet boundary of an operator algebra. In other words, we seek finite-dimensional boundary representations. Such representations may fail to exist even when the underlying operator algebra is finite-dimensional. Nevertheless, we exhibit mechanisms that detect when a given finite-dimensional representation lies in the Choquet boundary. Broadly speaking, our approach is topological and requires identifying isolated points in the spectrum of the $\mathrm{C}^*$-envelope. This is accomplished by analyzing peaking representations and pe…
We develop a completely bounded counterpart to the non-commutative Choquet boundary of an operator space. We show how the class of completely bounded linear maps is too large to accommodate our purposes. To overcome this obstacle, we isolate the subset of completely bounded linear maps on an operator space admitting a dilation of the same norm which is multiplicative on the generated $C^*$-algebra. We view such maps as analogues of the familiar unital completely contractive maps, and we exhibit many of their structural properties. Of particular interest to us are those maps which are extremal …
The main objects under study are quotients of multiplier algebras of certain complete Nevanlinna--Pick spaces, examples of which include the Drury--Arveson space on the ball and the Dirichlet space on the disc. We are particularly interested in the non-commutative Choquet boundaries for these quotients. Arveson's notion of hyperrigidity is shown to be detectable through the essential normality of some natural multiplication operators, thus extending previously known results on the Arveson--Douglas conjecture. We also highlight how the non-commutative Choquet boundaries of these quotients are i…
We study boundaries for unital operator algebras. These are sets of irreducible $*$-representations that completely capture the spatial norm attainment for a given subalgebra. Classically, the Choquet boundary is the minimal boundary of a function algebra and it coincides with the collection of peak points. We investigate the question of minimality for the non-commutative counterpart of the Choquet boundary and show that minimality is equivalent to what we call the Bishop property. Not every operator algebra has the Bishop property, but we exhibit classes of examples that do. Throughout our an…
We establish the dual equivalence of the category of (potentially nonunital) operator systems and the category of pointed compact nc (noncommutative) convex sets, extending a result of Davidson and the first author. We then apply this dual equivalence to establish a number of results about operator systems, some of which are new even in the unital setting. For example, we show that the maximal and minimal C*-covers of an operator system can be realized in terms of the C*-algebra of continuous nc functions on its nc quasistate space, clarifying recent results of Connes and van Suijlekom. We als…
We initiate a study of non-commutative Choquet boundary for spaces of unbounded operators. We define the notion of local boundary representations for local operator systems in locally C$^*$-algebras and prove that local boundary representations provide an intrinsic invariant for a particular class of local operator systems. An appropriate analog of purity of local completely positive maps on local operator systems is used to characterize local boundary representations for local operator systems in Frechet locally C$^*$-algebras.
We study operator spaces, operator algebras, and operator modules, from the point of view of the `noncommutative Shilov boundary'. In this attempt to utilize some `noncommutative Choquet theory', we find that Hilbert C$^*-$modules and their properties, which we studied earlier in the operator space framework, replace certain topological tools. We introduce certain multiplier operator algebras and C$^*-$algebras of an operator space, which generalize the algebras of adjointable operators on a C$^*-$module, and the `imprimitivity C$^*-$algebra'. It also generalizes a classical Banach space notio…
In 2006, Arveson resolved a long-standing problem by showing that for any element $x$ of a separable self-adjoint unital subspace $S\subseteq B(H)$, $\|x\|=\sup\|π(x)\|$, where $π$ runs over the boundary representations for $S$. Here we show that "sup" can be replaced by "max". This implies that the Choquet boundary for a separable operator system is a boundary in the classical sense; a similar result is obtained in terms of pure matrix states when $S$ is not assumed to be separable. For matrix convex sets associated to operator systems in matrix algebras, we apply the above results to improve…
In this paper, we analyze problems involving matrix variables for which we use a noncommutative algebra setting. To be more specific, we use a class of functions (called NC analytic functions) defined by power series in noncommuting variables and evaluate these functions on sets of matrices of all dimensions; we call such situations dimension-free. These types of functions have recently been used in the study of dimension-free linear system engineering problems. In this paper we characterize NC analytic maps that send dimension-free matrix balls to dimension-free matrix balls and carry the bou…
In this paper, we study free pluriharmonic functions on noncommutative balls, and their boundary behavior. The main tools used in this study are certain noncommutative transforms which are introduced in the present paper and which generalize the classical transforms of Berezin, Poisson, Fantappie, Herglotz, and Cayley. Several classical results from complex analysis have free analogues in our noncommutative multivariable setting.
We study an example of an index problem for a Dirac-like operator subject to Atiyah-Patodi-Singer boundary conditions on a noncommutative manifold with boundary, namely the quantum unit disk.
This note presents an analysis of a class of operator algebras constructed as cross-sectional algebras of flat holomorphic matrix bundles over a finitely bordered Riemann surface. These algebras are partly inspired by the bundle shifts of Abrahamse and Douglas. The first objective is to understand the boundary representations of the containing $C^*$-algebra, i.e. Arveson's noncommutative Choquet boundary for each of our operator algebras. The boundary representations of our operator algebras for their containing $C^*$-algebras are calculated, and it is shown that they correspond to evaluations…
We define a noncommutative space we call the quantum solid torus. It is an example of a noncommutative manifold with a noncommutative boundary. We study quantum Dirac type operators subject to Atiyah-Patodi-Singer like boundary conditions on the quantum solid torus. We show that such operators have compact inverse, which means that the corresponding boundary value problem is elliptic.
For a large class of word hyperbolic groups G the cross product C^*-algebra arising from the action of G on its Gromov boundary is shown to satisfy Poincare duality in K-theory. This class strictly contains fundamental groups of compact, negatively curved manifolds. The Baum-Connes Conjecture for amenable groupoids is used in a crucial way.
In this article, we introduce the notions of weak boundary repre- sentation, quasi hyperrigidity and weak peak points in the non-commutative setting for operator systems in C* algebras. An analogue of Saskin theorem relating quasi hyperrigidity and weak Choquet boundary for particular classes of C* algebras is proved. We also show that, if an irreducible representation is a weak boundary representation and weak peak then it is a boundary repre- sentation. Several examples are provided to illustrate these notions. It is also observed that isometries on Hilbert spaces play an important role in t…
We introduce the notion of a pre-spectral triple, which is a generalisation of a spectral triple $(\mathcal{A}, H, D)$ where $D$ is no longer required to be self-adjoint, but closed and symmetric. Despite having weaker assumptions, pre-spectral triples allow us to introduce noncompact noncommutative geometry with boundary. In particular, we derive the Hochschild character theorem in this setting. We give a detailed study of Dirac operators with Dirichlet boundary conditions on open subsets of $\mathbb{R}^d$, $d \geq 2$.
We study the closure of the unitary orbit of a given point in the non-commutative Choquet boundary of a unital operator space with respect to the topology of pointwise norm convergence. This may be described more extensively as the $\ast$-representations of the $\mathrm{C}^{\ast}$-envelope that are approximately unitarily equivalent to one that possesses the unique extension property. Although these $\ast$-representations do not necessarily have the unique extension property themselves, we show that their unital completely positive extensions display significant restrictions. When the underlyi…
The classical Julia-Wolff-Carath{é}odory Theorem characterizes the behaviour of the derivative of an analytic self-map of a unit disc or of a half-plane of the complex plane at certain boundary points. We prove a version of this result that applies to noncommutative self-maps of noncommutative half-planes in von Neumann algebras at points of the distinguished boundary of the domain. Our result, somehow surprisingly, relies almost entirely on simple geometric properties of noncommutative half-planes, which are quite similar to certain geometric properties of classical hyperbolic spaces.
We investigate an extension of ideas of Atiyah-Patodi-Singer (APS) to a noncommutative geometry setting framed in terms of Kasparov modules. We use a mapping cone construction to relate odd index pairings to even index pairings with APS boundary conditions in the setting of KK-theory, generalising the commutative theory. We find that Cuntz-Kreiger systems provide a natural class of examples for our construction and the index pairings coming from APS boundary conditions yield complete K-theoretic information about certain graph C*-algebras.
We introduce and study the notions of boundary actions and of the Furstenberg boundary of a discrete quantum group. As for classical groups, properties of boundary actions turn out to encode significant properties of the operator algebras associated with the discrete quantum group in question; for example we prove that if the action on the Furstenberg boundary is faithful, the quantum group C*-algebra admits at most one KMS-state for the scaling automorphism group. To obtain these results we develop a version of Hamana's theory of injective envelopes for quantum group actions, and establish se…
The goal of this paper is to introduce a class of operators, which we call quantum Dirac type operators on a noncommutative sphere, by a gluing construction from copies of noncommutative disks, subject to an appropriate local boundary condition. We show that the resulting operators have compact resolvents, and so they are elliptic operators.
We study topological phases in the hyperbolic plane using noncommutative geometry and T-duality, and show that fractional versions of the quantised indices for integer, spin and anomalous quantum Hall effects can result. Generalising models used in the Euclidean setting, a model for the bulk-boundary correspondence of fractional indices is proposed, guided by the geometry of hyperbolic boundaries.
