Operator Norm

For a linear operator A acting on a Hilbert space H, the operator norm ||A|| is defined as
||A|| = supH ||A||.||||1

(1)

An operator A is called bounded if

||A|| <
The set of such operators is denoted B(H)

Operator Topologies
The set B(H) can be given different topologies (i.e., different rules to call subsets open/closed).
Aside : A subset is closed if it contains all its limit points.
Now, a sequence of operators Tn in B(H) can converge to an operator T in different ways :
A) The weak topology results if convergence is in matrix elements, i.e.,
h|Tn |i h|T |i
for all , H.
B) The uniform topology results if convergence is in operator norm, i.e.,
||Tn T || 0

C) Though not required in the subsequent discussion, there is also the strong topology in which for every vector H
Tn T

Operator Algebras
A subset S B(H) is called an algebra if
A, B S = (A + B), AB S

for all complex

*, C* and Von-Neumann algebras

0.1

*-algebras

A subset S is called a *-algebra if it is an algebra in addition to being closed under Hermitian conjugation.
Now, recall the topologies we had defined in B(H)

0.2

concrete C* algebra

An *-algebra S is a concrete C algebra if it closed under the uniform topology.

0.3

Von Neumann algebra

An *-algebra S is a Von Neumann algebra if it is closed under the weak topology

Generating set of a Von Neumann algebra

Again, this is not really necessary for the following, but it is good to keep in mind.

1.1

Commutant of a set

For a set of operators S B(H), we define

S 0 = {A B(H) : [A, T ] = 0

for all T S

It can then be shown that S 00 (the commutant of the commutant) is not only a Von Neumann algebra, but is in fact the
smallest Von Neumann algebra that contains S.
This S 00 is called the Von Neumann algebra generated by S.

1.2

Characterising a Von Neumann algebra

Now, the preceding definitions and results give a simple criterion for a self adjoint subset R B(H) to be a Von Neumann
algebra
R00 = R
since the double commutant of a set is always the smallest Von Neumann algebra containing that set.

Some Awkward notation

In many places, we see some awkward notation which we explain here:

For Von Neumann algebras R1 , R2 , we define
R1 R2 = (R1 R2 )00
as the Von Neumann algebra generated by the union of R1 and R2

Abstract C Algebras

For many purposes, it is advantageous to adopt a more abstract notion of the preceding definitions. This is helpful because
the same abstract algebra may be represented concretely on different Hilbert spaces in different ways, the same way as
happens in the case of groups.
This is also important since we want to free ourselves of the baggage of the Hilbert space.
With this in mind, we define an abstract algebra S as a set which has the following relations defined:
i) An associative product (which need not be commutative)
ii)Linear combinations with complex coefficients
iii) An involution *: S S all of which satisfy the following familiar properties:
a)A = A
b)(A) =
A
c)(A + B) = A + B
d)(AB) = B A
If the set S, also has a norm |||| which has the following properties as part of its definition
a)||A|| = ||||A||
b)||A + B|| ||A|| + ||B||
c)||AB|| ||A||||B||
d)||A|| = 0

iff

A=0

then S, if it is complete in the above norm, is called a Banach *-algebra.

Aside: A set is called complete in a norm if all Cauchy sequences with respect to that norm converge within that set.
Finally, if the following condition is also satisfied by the above norm:
||AA || = ||A||2
then the norm is called a C -norm and S is called an abstract C - algebra.
2

Operator Spectra

Let A be an abstract algebra with unit element.

The spectrum of an element A A is defined as


SpectA = C : (1 A)1 does not exist inA
The following properties of spectra can be proven algebraically without using any limiting processes:
a) If F (x) is a polynomial and SpectA, then F () SpectF (A)
b) If A1 exists and SpectA, then 1 SpectA1
c) If Spect(AB) and 6= 0, then Spect(BA)
Spect(A )
d) If A is a *-algebra and Spect(A) then

Positive Elements and Positive Cones

An element A A is called positive, if

SpectA R+ {0}
The set of positive elements of an algebra A is denoted by A+
We can prove the following for positive elements.
Let A be a C algebra. Then,
a) A+ is a positive cone,i.e.,
with A, B A+ and a, b R+ , one has aA + bB R+
b) A A+ if and only if A = BB with B A and B 6= 0

Positive Linear Forms and States of an Algebra

a) A function from an algebra A to the complex numbers is called a linear form over A if
(A + B) = (A) + (B); A, B A, , C
b) If A is a Banach algebra, a linear form is called bounded if
|(A)| c||A||

We can similarly define the norm for as

|||| = supAA |(A)||A||1

c) Let A be a *-algebra with unit, a linear form. is called

i) Real if (A ) = (A)
ii) Positive if (AA ) 0
iii) Normalised if |||| = 1
A normalised, positive, linear form is called a state over the algebra.
We also have the following result:
A positive linear form over a Banach *-algebra with unit is bounded and
|||| = (1)

The Gelfand-Naimark-Segal (GNS) Construction

This is very important to understand Arakis paper. So we proceed step by step.
Consider a *-algebra A, and a positive linear form on A. Then, the GNS construction assigns to this form a Hilbert
space H and a representation of the algebra A by linear operators acting on this Hilbert space. The steps are as follows
:
a) Consider the subset J A with
J = {X A : (X X) = 0}
It can be shown that J is a left ideal of A, i.e.,
X J , A A = AX J
b) Now the quotient space A/J can be equipped with the innerproduct given as
h[A]|[B]i = (A B)
where [A] represents the equivalence class of the operator A. Note that it can be shown that the inner product above does
not depend on the choice of the representatives A, B
c) It is a well known theorem that any normed linear space can be embedded in a linear space complete with respect to
that norm. The Hilbert space H is obtained as the completion of A/J with respect to the norm given by the inner product
above:
H = A/J
d) The action of A on this Hilbert space is determined on the dense subset A/J by the algebra of A as
(A) = [AB]

if

= [B]

By continuity, this can be extended on the whole of H

Now, we are in a position to understand the terms in the first page of Arakis paper:

7
7.1

Normal states, Cyclic and Separating Vectors, Vector Representatives of

a state
Vector Representatives of a state

Given the GNS construction above, we see that (A) for any operator A in a *-algebra with unit can be represented as
(A) = h| (A)|i
with = [1].
We then say that the functional is represented by the vector representative |i.
If the algebra does not have a unit, even then it can be shown that there exists a vector |i (not necessarily unique) such
that
(A) = h| (A)|i
and |i is called a vector representative of