On subspaces spanned by freely independent random variables in noncommutative Lp-spaces

Abstract

This paper deals with new phenomena appearing in the structure of Banach spaces arising in noncommutative integration theory. Let E be a fully symmetric Banach function space on [0, 1] and M be a finite von Neumann algebra. Let [xk] be the closed subspace spanned by a sequence (xk) of freely independent mean zero random variables from E(ℳ). The subspace [xk] is complemented in E(ℳ) if and only if the closed subspace spanned by the pairwise orthogonal sequence (xk ⊗ ek) is complemented in a certain symmetric operator space $$Z_E^2\left({{\cal M}\overline \otimes {\ell_\infty}} \right)$$ . We obtain noncommutative (free) analogues of classical results of Dor and Starbird as well as those of Kadec and Pelczynski. We show that [xk] is complemented in L1(ℳ)provided (xk) is equivalent in L1(ℳ) to the standard basis of l2, while this never happens in the classical case. We prove that a sequence of freely independent copies of a mean zero random variable x in Lp(ℳ), 1 ≤ p ≤ 2, is equivalent to the standard basis in some Orlicz sequence space ℳΦ and give a precise description of the connection between the Orlicz function Φ and the distribution of the given random variable x. Finally, we prove that [xk] spanned by a sequence of freely independent copies of a mean zero random variable is complemented in E(ℳ) if and only if (xk) is equivalent in E(ℳ) to the standard basis of l2.