Providing an introduction to current research topics in functional
analysis and its applications to quantum physics, this book presents
three lectures surveying recent progress and open problems.
A special focus is given to the role of symmetry in non-commutative
probability, in the theory of quantum groups, and in quantum physics.
The first lecture presents the close connection between distributional
symmetries and independence properties. The second introduces many
structures (graphs, C*-algebras, discrete groups) whose quantum
symmetries are much richer than their classical symmetry groups, and
describes the associated quantum symmetry groups. The last lecture shows
how functional analytic and geometric ideas can be used to detect and to
quantify entanglement in high dimensions.
The book will allow graduate students and young researchers to gain a
better understanding of free probability, the theory of compact quantum
groups, and applications of the theory of Banach spaces to quantum
information. The latter applications will also be of interest to
theoretical and mathematical physicists working in quantum theory.