# Finite dimensional representations of the soft torus

## 1. Introduction

Knowing that a given $`C^{}`$-algebra has many representations on finite dimensional Hilbert spaces is of great importance to understanding structural properties of it. Among $`C^{}`$-algebras, those who possess a separating family of finite dimensional representations are called *residually finite dimensional* or just *RFD*. This class was studied in ,  and , and more recent insight about it has lead to important advances in classification theory and the theory of quasidiagonal $`C^{}`$-algebras (see, e.g., ,  and ).

For any $`\epsilon 0`$ we define a $`C^{}`$-algebra $`A_\epsilon `$ as the unital universal $`C^{}`$-algebra defined by the generators $`u,v`$ subject to the relations

$$uu^{}=u^{}u=1vv^{}=v^{}v=1uvvu\epsilon .$$

As recorded in , $`A_0`$ is the commutative $`C^{}`$-algebra of functions over the torus $`𝕋^2`$, and $`A_\epsilon `$ is the full $`C^{}`$-algebra of the free group of two generators $`𝔽_2`$ whenever $`\epsilon 2`$. For $`\epsilon `$ between $`0`$ and $`2`$ we get a class of $`C^{}`$-algebras which are commonly referred to as *soft tori*. These $`C^{}`$-algebras are of relevance to several problems in operator algebra theory (see ) and have been extensively studied in , , , .

The starting point of the investigation reported on in the present paper is a result from , stating that the soft tori form a continuous field interpolating between the (hard) torus and the group $`C^{}`$-algebra of the free group. Since $`C(𝕋^2)`$ is obviously RFD, and since $`C^{}(𝔽_2)`$ was proved to be RFD in  — a surprise at the time — we are naturally led to the question of whether the same is true for the interpolating family $`A_\epsilon `$. We are going to prove that this is the case.

## 2. Methods

We are going to employ a method from  and  which lies behind many results about the structural properties of $`A_\epsilon `$.

We define $`B_\epsilon `$ as the universal $`C^{}`$-algebra given by the generators $`\{u_n\}_n`$ and the relations

(1) 
$$u_nu_n^{}=u_n^{}u_n=1u_{n+1}u_n\epsilon .$$

Clearly one can define an automorphism $`\alpha `$ on $`B_\epsilon `$ by

$$u_nu_{n+1},$$

and as seen in  one has

$$A_\epsilon =B_\epsilon _\alpha .$$

There is a faithful conditional expectation $`E_\alpha :A_\epsilon B_\epsilon `$.

Our strategy is to prove that $`A_\epsilon `$ is RFD by proving that $`B_\epsilon `$ is RFD in a way which is covariant with $`\alpha `$.

## 3.  Finite dimensional representations of $`B_\epsilon `$

We start out by finding a new picture of $`B_\epsilon `$ by generators and relations.

###### Lemma 3.1.

For any $`\epsilon <2`$, $`B_\epsilon `$ is isomorphic to the universal $`C^{}`$-algebra generated by $`v_0,\{h_n\}_n`$ subject to the relations

(2) 
$$v_0v_0^{}=v_0^{}v_0=1h_n=h_n^{}h_n2\mathrm{cos}(\epsilon /2)$$

###### Proof.

Let us denote the $`C^{}`$-algebra generated by $`v_0`$ and $`h_n`$ subject to (2) by $`B_\epsilon ^{}`$. We can define a map $`\phi :B_\epsilon B_\epsilon ^{}`$ by

$$u_n\{\begin{array}{cc}e^{i\pi h_n}\mathrm{}e^{i\pi h_1}v_0\hfill & n>0\hfill \\ v_0\hfill & n=0\hfill \\ e^{i\pi h_n}\mathrm{}e^{i\pi h_1}v_0\hfill & n<0\hfill \end{array}$$

since the elements to the right of the arrow above satisfy the relations (1). Similarly, the universal property of $`B_\epsilon ^{}`$ allows for a map $`\psi :B_\epsilon ^{}B_\epsilon `$ defined by

$$v_0u_0h_n\frac{1}{i\pi }\mathrm{Log}(u_{n+1}u_n^{})$$

Clearly $`\phi `$ and $`\psi `$ are each others’ inverse. ∎

This characterization can be used to shorten the proof of \[8, 2.2\], stating that $`B_\epsilon `$ is homotopic to $`C(𝕋)`$. To see this, define maps $`\phi :B_\epsilon ^{}C(𝕋)`$ and $`\psi :C(𝕋)B_\epsilon ^{}`$ by the correspondence $`v_0[zz]`$, $`h_n0`$. Clearly $`\phi \psi =\mathrm{id}_{C(𝕋)}`$, and $`\chi _t:B_\epsilon ^{}B_\epsilon ^{}`$ given by

$$\chi _t(v_0)=v_0\chi _t(h_n)=th_n$$

provides a homotopy from $`\mathrm{id}_{B_\epsilon ^{}}`$ to $`\psi \phi `$.

In the following proof, we denote by $`\mathrm{Alg}(X)`$ the smallest $``$-algebra, not necessarily closed, generated by $`X`$ inside some $`C^{}`$-algebra.

###### Proposition 3.2.

For any $`\epsilon <2`$, $`B_\epsilon `$ is RFD. In fact, for any $`0bB_\epsilon `$ there exists $`n`$, an automorphism $`\beta `$ of $`𝐌_n`$ and a representation $`\rho :B_\epsilon 𝐌_n`$ with the properties:

$$\rho (b)0\beta \rho =\rho \alpha \beta ^n=\mathrm{id}.$$

###### Proof.

For the first claim we use the characterization of $`B_\epsilon `$ given by the relations (2) and proceed as in . Fix a faithful non-degenerate representation $`\pi :B_\epsilon 𝔹()`$, where we may assume that $``$ is a separable Hilbert space.

Let $`P_m`$ be a sequence of projections, with $`\mathrm{rank}(P_m)=m`$, converging strongly to the unit of $`𝔹()`$, and abbreviate

$$T_{0,m}=P_m\pi (v_0)P_mK_{n,m}=P_m\pi (h_n)P_m$$

Now note that for each $`m`$ the collection of elements $`\{V_{0,m},H_{n,m}:n\}`$ defined by

$$V_{0,m}=\left[\begin{array}{cc}T_{0,m}& \sqrt{P_mT_{0,m}T_{0,m}^{}{}_{}{}^{}}\\ \sqrt{P_mT_{0,m}^{}{}_{}{}^{}T_{0,m}}& T_{0,m}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\end{array}\right]H_{n,m}=\left[\begin{array}{cc}K_{n,m}& 0\\ 0& K_{n,m}\end{array}\right]$$

satisfies (2) in $`𝐌_2(P_m𝔹()P_m)𝐌_{2m}`$. Consequently we get representations $`\pi _m:B_\epsilon 𝐌_{2m}`$. We are going to check, following , that

$$\underset{¯}{\pi }:B_\epsilon \underset{m=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝐌_{2m}\underset{¯}{\pi }(b)=(\pi _m(b))_{m=1}^{\mathrm{}}$$

is an isometry. It suffices to check that $`\underset{¯}{\pi }(x)x\eta `$ for any $`\eta >0`$ and any $`x\mathrm{Alg}(\{v_0,h_N,\mathrm{},h_N\})`$. Fix $`\eta `$, $`N`$ and $`x`$ and write

$$x=F(v_0,h_N,\mathrm{},h_N)$$

where $`F`$ is some finite linear combination of finite words in $`2N+2`$ variables and their adjoints. Since

$$V_{0,m}\left[\begin{array}{cc}\pi (v_0)& 0\\ 0& \pi (v_0)^{}\end{array}\right]H_{n,m}\left[\begin{array}{cc}\pi (h_n)& 0\\ 0& \pi (h_n)\end{array}\right],m\mathrm{}$$

strongly on the unit ball of $`𝐌_2(𝔹())`$ we conclude that

$`\underset{m\mathrm{}}{lim}F(V_{0,m},H_{N,m},\mathrm{},H_{N,m})`$   
$`=\left[\begin{array}{cc}\pi (F(v_0,h_N,\mathrm{},h_N))& 0\\ 0& \pi (F(v_0^{},h_N,\mathrm{},h_N))\end{array}\right]`$   
$`\pi (x)=x.`$   
We can hence find $`m`$ such that

$$\underset{¯}{\pi }(x)\pi _m(x)=F(V_{0,m},H_{N,m},\mathrm{},H_{N,m})x\eta .$$

For the second claim, we go back to the original presentation (1) of $`B_\epsilon `$ by unitary generators only. For a given $`bB_\epsilon `$ with $`b=1`$ we fix, using the first part of the proposition, a finite dimensional representation $`\pi :B_\epsilon 𝐌_m`$ with $`\pi (b)>\frac{3}{4}`$. We also fix $`c`$ and $`N`$ such that

$$bc<\frac{1}{4}c\mathrm{Alg}(u_N,\mathrm{},u_N).$$

Choose $`M>0`$ and unitaries $`v_0^\pm ,\mathrm{},v_M^\pm `$ with the properties

$$v_{n+1}^\pm v_n^\pm \epsilon v_0^\pm =u_{\pm N}v_M^\pm =1.$$

There is then exactly one representation $`\pi ^{}:B_\epsilon 𝐌_m`$ which is $`2(N+M)`$-periodic in the sense that $`\pi ^{}(u_n)=\pi ^{}(u_{n+2(N+M)})`$ and satisfies

$$\pi ^{}(u_n)=\{\begin{array}{cc}v_{Nn}^{}\hfill & MNn<N\hfill \\ \pi (u_n)\hfill & NnN\hfill \\ v_{nN}^+\hfill & N<nN+M\hfill \end{array}$$

Note that $`\pi ^{}(c)=\pi (c)`$; in particular $`\pi ^{}(c)\frac{1}{2}`$.

Now let $`n=2(N+M)m`$. With $`\beta `$ defined as the forward cyclic shift in block form (with period $`2(N+M)`$) we may define a covariant representation $`\rho `$ of $`B_\epsilon `$ on $`𝐌_n`$ by

$$u_i\left[\begin{array}{c}\pi ^{}(u_i)\\ & \pi ^{}(u_{i+1})\\ & & \mathrm{}\\ & & & \pi ^{}(u_{i+2(N+M)1})\end{array}\right].$$

We have

$$\rho (b)\pi ^{}(b)\pi ^{}(c)\frac{1}{4}>0$$

## 4.  Finite dimensional representations of $`A_\epsilon `$

###### Theorem 4.1.

For any $`\epsilon >0`$, let $`A_\epsilon `$ be the universal $`C^{}`$-algebra generated by a pair of unitaries subject to the relation $`uvvu\epsilon `$. Then $`A_\epsilon `$ is residually finite dimensional in the sense that it admits a separating family of finite dimensional representations.

###### Proof.

We may assume that $`0<\epsilon <2`$. Let $`0aA_\epsilon `$. Then also $`b=E_\alpha (a^{}a)`$ is nonzero, for the conditional expectation is faithful. Choose $`n`$, $`\rho `$ and $`\beta `$ as in Proposition 3.2 and define

$$\pi :A_\epsilon =B_\epsilon _\alpha 𝐌_n_\beta $$

as the extension to the crossed product of the covariant $``$-homomorphism $`\rho `$. We then have, with $`E_\beta `$ the conditional expectation from $`𝐌_n_\beta `$ to $`𝐌_n`$

$$E_\beta (\pi (a^{}a))=\pi (E_\alpha (a^{}a))=\rho (b)0,$$

so $`\pi (a)0`$.

Note finally that since $`\beta `$ is periodic, any irreducible representation of $`𝐌_n_\beta `$ is finite dimensional, and hence this $`C^{}`$-algebra is RFD. Therefore we may compose $`\pi `$ with some finite dimensional representation of it to exhibit a finite dimensional representation which does not vanish on $`a`$. ∎

Linear algebra tells us that $`𝐌_n`$ has a faithful tracial state and has the property that every matrix which is *hyponormal* is the sense that

$$x^{}xxx^{}$$

is in fact normal. As in , we may conclude:

###### Corollary 4.2.

For any $`\epsilon `$, $`A_\epsilon `$ has a faithful tracial state. Furthermore, any hyponormal operator in $`A_\epsilon `$ is in fact normal.

###### Proof.

These two properties clearly pass from matrices to sums of the form $`_n𝐌_{m_n}`$, and from these sums to any of their subalgebras. By the theorem, $`A_\epsilon `$ is one such. ∎