KMS States, Entropy and the Variational Principle in full C*-dynamical systems

Abstract

To any periodic, unital and full C*-dynamical system (A, α, R) an invertible operator s acting on the Banach space of trace functionals of the fixed point algebra is canonically associated. KMS states correspond to positive eigenvectors of s. A Perron-Frobenius type theorem asserts the existence of KMS states at inverse temperatures equal the logarithms of the inner and outer spectral radii of s (extremal KMS states). Examples arising from subshifts in symbolic dynamics, self-similar sets in fractal geometry and noncommutative metric spaces are discussed. Certain subshifts are naturally associated to the system and the relationship between their topological entropy and inverse temperatures of extremal KMS states are given. Noncommutative shift maps are considered. It is shown that their entropy is bounded by the sum of the entropy of the associated subshift and a suitable entropy computed in the homogeneous subalgebra. Examples are discussed among Matsumoto algebras associated to certain non finite type subshifts. The CNT entropy is compared to the classical measure-theoretic entropy of the subshift. A noncommutative analogue of the classical variational principle for the entropy of subshifts is obtained for the noncommutative shift of certain Matsumoto algebras. More generally, a necessary condition is discussed. In the case of Cuntz-Krieger algebras an explicit construction of the state with maximal entropy from the unique KMS state is done.