Quantum metrics on noncommutative spaces

Abstract

We introduce two new formulations for the notion of "quantum metric on noncommutative space". For a compact noncommutative space associated to a unital C*-algebra, our quantum metrics are elements of the spatial tensor product of the C*-algebra with itself. We consider some basic properties of these new objects, and state some connections with the Rieffel theory of compact quantum metric spaces. The main gap in our work is the lack of a nonclassical example even in the case of C*-algebras of matrices.