q-Gaussian processes are deformations of the usual Gaussian distribution. There are several different versions of this; here we treat a multivariate deformation, also addressed as q-Gaussian process, arising from free probability theory and corresponding to deformations of the canonical commutation relations. For other deformations of Gaussian distributions, see q-Gaussian distribution and Gaussian q-distribution.
The q-Gaussian process was formally introduced in a paper by Frisch and Bourret[1] under the name of parastochastics, and also later by Greenberg[2] as an example of infinite statistics. It was mathematically established and investigated in papers by Bozejko and Speicher[3] and by Bozejko, Kümmerer, and Speicher[4] in the context of non-commutative probability.
It is given as the distribution of sums of creation and annihilation operators in a q-deformed Fock space. The calculation of moments of those operators is given by a q-deformed version of a Wick formula or Isserlis formula. The specification of a special covariance in the underlying Hilbert space leads to the q-Brownian motion,[4] a special non-commutative version of classical Brownian motion.
In the following q ∈ [ − 1 , 1 ] {\displaystyle q\in [-1,1]} is fixed. Consider a Hilbert space H {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}} . On the algebraic full Fock space
where H 0 = C Ω {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}^{0}=\mathbb {C} \Omega } with a norm one vector Ω {\displaystyle \Omega } , called vacuum, we define a q-deformed inner product as follows:
where i ( σ ) = # { ( k , ℓ ) ∣ 1 ≤ k < ℓ ≤ n ; σ ( k ) > σ ( ℓ ) } {\displaystyle i(\sigma )=\#\{(k,\ell )\mid 1\leq k<\ell \leq n;\sigma (k)>\sigma (\ell )\}} is the number of inversions of σ ∈ S n {\displaystyle \sigma \in S_{n}} .
The q-Fock space[5] is then defined as the completion of the algebraic full Fock space with respect to this inner product
For − 1 < q < 1 {\displaystyle -1<q<1} the q-inner product is strictly positive.[3][6] For q = 1 {\displaystyle q=1} and q = − 1 {\displaystyle q=-1} it is positive, but has a kernel, which leads in these cases to the symmetric and anti-symmetric Fock spaces, respectively.
For h ∈ H {\displaystyle h\in {\mathcal {H}}} we define the q-creation operator a ∗ ( h ) {\displaystyle a^{*}(h)} , given by
Its adjoint (with respect to the q-inner product), the q-annihilation operator a ( h ) {\displaystyle a(h)} , is given by
Those operators satisfy the q-commutation relations[7]
For q = 1 {\displaystyle q=1} , q = 0 {\displaystyle q=0} , and q = − 1 {\displaystyle q=-1} this reduces to the CCR-relations, the Cuntz relations, and the CAR-relations, respectively. With the exception of the case q = 1 , {\displaystyle q=1,} the operators a ∗ ( f ) {\displaystyle a^{*}(f)} are bounded.
Operators of the form s q ( h ) = a ( h ) + a ∗ ( h ) {\displaystyle s_{q}(h)={a(h)+a^{*}(h)}} for h ∈ H {\displaystyle h\in {\mathcal {H}}} are called q-Gaussian[5] (or q-semicircular[8]) elements.
On F q ( H ) {\displaystyle {\mathcal {F}}_{q}({\mathcal {H}})} we consider the vacuum expectation state τ ( T ) = ⟨ Ω , T Ω ⟩ {\displaystyle \tau (T)=\langle \Omega ,T\Omega \rangle } , for T ∈ B ( F ( H ) ) {\displaystyle T\in {\mathcal {B}}({\mathcal {F}}({\mathcal {H}}))} .
The (multivariate) q-Gaussian distribution or q-Gaussian process[4][9] is defined as the non commutative distribution of a collection of q-Gaussians with respect to the vacuum expectation state. For h 1 , … , h p ∈ H {\displaystyle h_{1},\dots ,h_{p}\in {\mathcal {H}}} the joint distribution of s q ( h 1 ) , … , s q ( h p ) {\displaystyle s_{q}(h_{1}),\dots ,s_{q}(h_{p})} with respect to τ {\displaystyle \tau } can be described in the following way,:[1][3] for any i { 1 , … , k } → { 1 , … , p } {\displaystyle i\{1,\dots ,k\}\rightarrow \{1,\dots ,p\}} we have
where c r ( π ) {\displaystyle cr(\pi )} denotes the number of crossings of the pair-partition π {\displaystyle \pi } . This is a q-deformed version of the Wick/Isserlis formula.
For p = 1, the q-Gaussian distribution is a probability measure on the interval [ − 2 / 1 − q , 2 / 1 − q ] {\displaystyle [-2/{\sqrt {1-q}},2/{\sqrt {1-q}}]} , with analytic formulas for its density.[10] For the special cases q = 1 {\displaystyle q=1} , q = 0 {\displaystyle q=0} , and q = − 1 {\displaystyle q=-1} , this reduces to the classical Gaussian distribution, the Wigner semicircle distribution, and the symmetric Bernoulli distribution on ± 1 {\displaystyle \pm 1} . The determination of the density follows from old results[11] on corresponding orthogonal polynomials.
The von Neumann algebra generated by s q ( h i ) {\displaystyle s_{q}(h_{i})} , for h i {\displaystyle h_{i}} running through an orthonormal system ( h i ) i ∈ I {\displaystyle (h_{i})_{i\in I}} of vectors in H {\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}} , reduces for q = 0 {\displaystyle q=0} to the famous free group factors L ( F | I | ) {\displaystyle L(F_{\vert I\vert })} . Understanding the structure of those von Neumann algebras for general q has been a source of many investigations.[12] It is now known, by work of Guionnet and Shlyakhtenko,[13] that at least for finite I and for small values of q, the von Neumann algebra is isomorphic to the corresponding free group factor.