English

Spectral results for free random variables

Operator Algebras 2026-05-18 v5 Mathematical Physics math.MP Probability

Abstract

Let (A,tr)(\mathcal{A},\mathrm{tr}) be a von Neumann algebra with a faithful, normal trace tr:AC.\mathrm{tr}:\mathcal{A}\rightarrow\mathbb{C}. For each aA,a\in\mathcal{A}, define S(λ,ε)=tr[log((aλ)(aλ)+ε)],λC, ε>0, S(\lambda,\varepsilon)=\mathrm{tr}[\log((a-\lambda)^{\ast}(a-\lambda )+\varepsilon)],\quad\lambda\in\mathbb{C},~\varepsilon>0, so that the limit as ε0+\varepsilon\rightarrow0^{+} of SS is the log potential of the Brown measure of a.a. Suppose that for a fixed λC,\lambda\in\mathbb{C}, the function εSε(λ,ε)=tr[((aλ)(aλ)+ε)1] \varepsilon\mapsto\frac{\partial S}{\partial\varepsilon}(\lambda ,\varepsilon)=\mathrm{tr}[((a-\lambda)^{\ast}(a-\lambda)+\varepsilon )^{-1}] admits a real analytic extension to a neighborhood of 00 in R.\mathbb{R}. Then we will show that λ\lambda is outside the spectrum of a.a. We will apply this result to several examples involving circular and elliptic elements, as well as free multiplicative Brownian motions. In most cases, we will show that the spectrum of the relevant element aa coincides with the support of its Brown measure.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.03382,
  title  = {Spectral results for free random variables},
  author = {Brian C. Hall and Ching-Wei Ho},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.03382},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

37 pages, 7 figures. To appear in Advanced Nonlinear Studies. Typo corrected in Eq. (3.11) since previous version

R2 v1 2026-07-01T06:16:02.095Z