Commutativity of operator algebras

Abstract

We call an operator algebra A {\em reversible} if A with reversed multiplication is also an abstract operator algebra (in the modern operator space sense). This class of operator algebras is intimately related to the {\em symmetric operator algebras}: the subalgebras of B(H) on which the transpose map is a complete isometry. In previous work we studied the unital case, where reversibility is equivalent to commutativity. We give many sufficient conditions under which a nonunital reversible or symmetric operator algebra is commutative. We also give many complementary results of independent interest, and solve a few open questions from previous papers. Not every reversible or symmetric operator algebra is commutative, however we show that they all are 3-commutative. That is, order does not matter in the product of three or more elements from A. The proof of this relies on a technical analysis involving the injective envelope. Indeed nonunital algebras are often enormously more complicated than unital ones in regard to the topics we consider. On the positive side, our considerations raise very many questions even for low dimensional matrix algebras, some of which are of a computational nature and might be suitable for undergraduate research. The canonical anticommutation relations from mathematical physics play a significant role.