Induced Quadratic Modules

Abstract

Positivity in *-algebras can be defined either algebraically, by quadratic modules, or analytically, by *-representations. By the induction procedure for *-representations, we can lift the analytical notion of positivity from a *-subalgebra to the entire *-algebra. The aim in this article is to define and study the induction procedure for quadratic modules. The main question is when a given quadratic module on the *-algebra is induced from its intersection with the *-subalgebra. This question is very hard even for the smallest quadratic module (i.e. the set of all sums of hermitian squares) and will be answered only in very special cases.