A noncommutative construction of families of biunitary matrices and application to subfactors

Abstract

We introduce a construction that, given a pair (u,v) of complex Hadamard matrices of the same order, generates infinitely many biunitary matrices of varying (and distinct) orders. As a key application, this framework yields nested sequences of vertex model subfactors that are not a tower of downward basic construction. Notably, the construction is noncommutative: interchanging the matrices (i.e., considering (v,u) instead of (u,v)) can lead to non-isomorphic subfactors. Focusing on the Hadamard equivalence class of the Fourier matrix, we provide a full characterization of the resulting vertex model subfactors, along with explicit computations of their relative commutants. Along the way, we conduct a detailed study of certain naturally arising inner and outer automorphisms that play a key role in the structure of these subfactors.