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.

Accepted for publication in Algebraic Combinatorics. Changes in v3: correction in Def. 6.9 (noncrossing-arbitrary partitions). 26 pages