{"title":"A Characterisation for the Category of Hilbert Spaces","authors":"Stephen Lack, Shay Tobin","doi":"10.1007/s10485-025-09805-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The categories of real and of complex Hilbert spaces with bounded linear maps have received purely categorical characterisations by Chris Heunen and Andre Kornell. These characterisations are achieved through Solèr’s theorem, a result which shows that certain orthomodularity conditions on a Hermitian space over an involutive division ring result in a Hilbert space with the division ring being either the reals, complexes or quarternions. The characterisation by Heunen and Kornell makes use of a monoidal structure, which in turn excludes the category of quarternionic Hilbert spaces. We provide an alternative characterisation without the assumption of monoidal structure on the category. This new approach not only gives a new characterisation of the categories of real and of complex Hilbert spaces, but also the category of quaternionic Hilbert spaces.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7952,"journal":{"name":"Applied Categorical Structures","volume":"33 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10485-025-09805-3.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Applied Categorical Structures","FirstCategoryId":"100","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10485-025-09805-3","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"数学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"MATHEMATICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The categories of real and of complex Hilbert spaces with bounded linear maps have received purely categorical characterisations by Chris Heunen and Andre Kornell. These characterisations are achieved through Solèr’s theorem, a result which shows that certain orthomodularity conditions on a Hermitian space over an involutive division ring result in a Hilbert space with the division ring being either the reals, complexes or quarternions. The characterisation by Heunen and Kornell makes use of a monoidal structure, which in turn excludes the category of quarternionic Hilbert spaces. We provide an alternative characterisation without the assumption of monoidal structure on the category. This new approach not only gives a new characterisation of the categories of real and of complex Hilbert spaces, but also the category of quaternionic Hilbert spaces.
期刊介绍:
Applied Categorical Structures focuses on applications of results, techniques and ideas from category theory to mathematics, physics and computer science. These include the study of topological and algebraic categories, representation theory, algebraic geometry, homological and homotopical algebra, derived and triangulated categories, categorification of (geometric) invariants, categorical investigations in mathematical physics, higher category theory and applications, categorical investigations in functional analysis, in continuous order theory and in theoretical computer science. In addition, the journal also follows the development of emerging fields in which the application of categorical methods proves to be relevant.
Applied Categorical Structures publishes both carefully refereed research papers and survey papers. It promotes communication and increases the dissemination of new results and ideas among mathematicians and computer scientists who use categorical methods in their research.