Non-commutative disintegrations: existence and uniqueness in finite dimensions

Abstract

Motivated by advances in categorical probability, we introduce non-commutative almost everywhere (a.e.) equivalence and disintegrations in the setting of C*-algebras. We show that C*-algebras (resp. W*-algebras) and a.e. equivalence classes of 2-positive (resp. positive) unital maps form a category. We prove non-commutative disintegrations are a.e. unique whenever they exist. We provide an explicit characterization for when disintegrations exist in the setting of finite-dimensional C*-algebras, and we give formulas for the associated disintegrations.