A mathematical notion of interaction is introduced for noncommutative dynamical systems, i.e., for one parameter groups of
*-automorphisms of
endowed with a certain causal structure. With any interaction there is a well-defined “state of the past” and a well-defined
“state of the future”. We describe the construction of many interactions involving cocycle perturbations of the CAR/CCR flows
and show that they are nontrivial. The proof of nontriviality is based on a new inequality, relating the eigenvalue lists
of the “past” and “future” states to the norm of a linear functional on a certain
C
*-algebra.
To the memory of Irving Segal
Received: 12 October 1999 / Accepted: 21 October 1999