Absolutely continuous representations and a Kaplansky density theorem for free semigroup algebras

Abstract

We introduce notions of absolutely continuous functionals and representations on the non-commutative disk algebra A n . Absolutely continuous functionals are used to help identify the type L part of the free semigroup algebra associated to a * -extendible representation σ . A * -extendible representation of A n is regular if the absolutely continuous part coincides with the type L part. All known examples are regular. Absolutely continuous functionals are intimately related to maps which intertwine a given * -extendible representation with the left regular representation. A simple application of these ideas extends reflexivity and hyper-reflexivity results. Moreover the use of absolute continuity is a crucial device for establishing a density theorem which states that the unit ball of σ ( A n ) is weak- * dense in the unit ball of the associated free semigroup algebra if and only if σ is regular. We provide some explicit constructions related to the density theorem for specific representations. A notion of singular functionals is also defined, and every functional decomposes in a canonical way into the sum of its absolutely continuous and singular parts.