Towards a classification of multi-faced independences: a combinatorial approach

Abstract

We determine a set of necessary conditions on a partition-indexed family of complex numbers to be the "highest coefficients" of a positive and symmetric multi-faced universal product; i.e. the product associated with a multi-faced version of noncommutative stochastic independence, such as bifreeness. The highest coefficients of a universal product are the weights of the moment-cumulant relation for its associated independence. We show that these conditions are almost sufficient, in the sense that whenever the conditions are satisfied, one can associate a (automatically unique) symmetric universal product with the prescribed highest coefficients. Furthermore, we give a quite explicit description of such families of coefficients, thereby producing a list of candidates that must contain all positive symmetric universal products. We discover in this way four (three up to trivial face-swapping) previously unknown moment-cumulant relations that give rise to symmetric universal products; to decide whether they are positive, and thus give rise to independences which can be used in an operator algebraic framework, remains an open problem.