Consider a Von Neumann algebra M acting on a Hilbert space H.

Then, an element
p ∈ M is called a projection if p = p∗ and p2 = p. Two such projections are said to be
equivalent iff ∃u s.t.

u∗ u = p (0.1)

uu∗ = q (0.2)

Properties of u :

• It is a unitary on the subspace pH : hx|pu∗ up|xi = |px|2

• Its range is qH : Given y ∈ qH, this means y = qx = q 2 x = upu∗ x = uz, with z ∈ pH

• It vanishes on (pH)⊥ , if z ∈ (pH)⊥ , then |uz|2 = hz, pzi = 0

This is an equivalence relation.

• p ∼ p(u = p)

• p ∼ q =⇒ q ∼ p(obvious)

• p ∼ q, q ∼ r =⇒ p ∼ r : We have u∗ u = p, uu∗ = w∗ w = q, ww∗ = r.

This means uu∗ uu∗ = q = w∗ w =⇒ upu∗ = w∗ w =⇒ (wu)p(u∗ w∗ ) = r.
Similarly (u∗ w∗ )r(wu) = p so that p ∼ r

For factors, there is also an order relation on the projectors which is

p  q, iff ∃p0 s.t., p ∼ p0 p0 q = qp0 = p0 (0.3)

The last condition is equivalent to the statement p0 H ⊆ qH.

Before, moving on to the classification, it is important to mention one additional definition.
Let p be a projector. It is called

• finite if it is not equivalent to a subprojector

• infinite if its not finite.

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 • purely infinite if it has no finite subprojection

• semifinite if it is infinite but is the supremeum of an increasing family of subprojections

• minimal if it has no proper subprojection.

An algebra is said to be finite,infinite,purely finite, semifinite, minimal if the identity

considered as a projector is any of these things.
Very briefly, the Murray Von Neumann classification of factor M goes as follows : Define
P(M) as the set of all projectors in the algebra. Define the equivalence relation as above
between projectors.
Define Q = P(M)/ ∼ as the set of equivalence classes under this relation. Then the algeba
is

• Type In , if M is finite and Q is order isomorphic to {1, 2, ..., n}

• Type I∞ , if M is infinite and Q is order isomorphic to the N ∪ {∞}.

• Type II1 , if M is finite and Q is order isomorphic to the bounded interval [0,1]

• Type II∞ if M is semifinite and Q is order isomorphic to the unbounded interval

[0, ∞]

• Type III if M is purely infinite and Q isorder isomorphic to {0, ∞}

We analyse the infinite tensor product of qubits.

I. HILBERT SPACE

We define the Hilbert space as

H = ∪∞
n=1 H2n (1.1)

with

H2n = H2n ⊗ |0i ⊗ |0i... (1.2)

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Here, H2n is the 2n -dimensional Hilbert space generated by n-qubits. Note further H2n ⊆
H2m , n ≤ m. The Von Neumann algebra is then

M = ∪∞
n=1 M2n (1.3)
M2n = M2n ⊗ 1 ⊗ 1.. (1.4)

Here, again, M2n is the matrix algebra of n-fold tensor product of 2-by-2 matrices. Again,
M2n ⊆ M2m , n ≤ m. To see its type, we follow two procedures

A. Trace

What is the trace of the identity operator? Using tr(a ⊗ b) = tra × trb, we immediately
see tr(1 ⊗ 1...) = ∞ and hence the algebra cannot be typeII∞ .

B. Projections

There is a nicer way to see that this is actually type I∞ . What are the projectors? One
class of operatos are simply

Pn : H → H 2 n (1.5)

They are labelled by n and since the H2n are of diffrent dimensionality for different n,
the Pn are inequivalent. Also, Pm ≤ Pn for m ≤ n. So the order relation is preserved.
The equivalence class of the identity operator contains projectors onto infinite dimensional
subspaces. One representative element is the projector

P∞ : H → F = ∪ ∞
k=1 F2k (1.6)

where the subspaces F2k are defined as

F2k = H2 ⊗ |0i ⊗ H2 ⊗ |0i ⊗ ....|0i ⊗ H2 ⊗|0i ⊗ |0i... (1.7)

| {z }
k-copies of H2 at even positions

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F is obviously a subspace of H. So P∞ ≤ 1. But F and H are unitarily isomorphic, so that
P∞ ∼ 1. Thus, the identity operator and hence the algebra are infinite. Hence this algebra
is type I∞

II. BOUNDEDNESS

Here note that the following is a bounded operator on H

Pk = H2k ⊗ |P ⊗ P{z⊗ P....} (2.1)

upto ∞

where P is of form
 
0 0
P =  (2.2)
0 c

Here a, c are arbitrary complex numbers.

Note that all its eigen vectors that are in H as defined previously, have finite eigenvalues by
construction.
One might worry that it might have infinite results when acting on vectors of form

s = w ⊗ |1i ⊗ |1i ⊗ |1i.... (2.3)

| {z }
upto ∞

But such vectors do not belong to the Hilbert space!!

Finally, Pk can be arranged so that any notion of normalised trace gives infinity when
evaluated on Pk .