A representation of a C-star algebra on a Hilbert space is a star-homomorphism . It is cyclic if some vector has dense orbit span as displayed; the orbit is itself a linear subspace. For a unital representation, a unit cyclic vector defines a state on a C-star algebra by . Conversely, the Gelfand–Naimark–Segal construction realizes every state this way. Cyclicity means density under the action of the whole algebra, not necessarily under powers of a single chosen element.
A state on a C-star algebra is a positive linear functional of norm one. In the unital case this is equivalent to positivity and . A unital star-homomorphism is a cyclic representation of a C-star algebra if it has a vector with . For the representation associated with a state, the cyclic vector is taken to have norm one.
Use inner products linear in the first argument, as in the displayed formula for the projection in the source. In the Gelfand–Naimark–Segal construction, set
The Cauchy–Schwarz inequality for positive C-star functionals makes this inner product well-defined on . Indeed a null vector pairs to zero with every vector. The set is a left ideal: implies
so implies . The same estimate shows that left multiplication induces a bounded operator
Complete the quotient pre-Hilbert space to , and extend these operators by continuity. The formula for the inner product gives , while multiplication and the unit are preserved. Put . Then , the vectors are dense in , and
This gives the requested cyclic representation for an arbitrary state.
For the specified unit vector , the functional is complex-linear and obeys . Moreover
Thus it is positive and has norm exactly one, proving that is a vector state on a C-star algebra.
The rank-one projection satisfies
If , this is zero for every , so . Conversely, evaluation at gives . Hence
In particular .
The concrete GNS space is the completion of with
Define . The description of the null ideal proves it is well-defined, and the displayed equality proves it is a linear isometry with range . It therefore extends to an isometry . The extended range is closed, since its domain is complete, and contains the dense set . Thus is onto the required closure.
In fact here , so : given any , the bounded rank-one operator sends to . Thus is a unitary map onto all of , and .
Finally, on the dense quotient vectors,
Both sides are bounded operators, so this identity extends to all of . Multiplication by the inverse unitary map gives
This is the GNS representation of a vector state, with the vector state, null ideal, cyclic vector and intertwining isometry all made explicit.
For a bounded linear functional on a unital C*-algebra, the state criterion is
Equivalently it is positive and takes the unit to one.
In the Gelfand–Naimark–Segal construction, set . This is a left ideal. Give the inner product , linear in the first variable, and complete it to a Hilbert space . Left multiplication gives the bounded *-representation . The vector is cyclic and satisfies .
The Hermitian matrix has eigenvalues and trace one. In an orthonormal eigenbasis ,
If , both weights are nonnegative and sum to one, so this functional is positive and normalized, hence a state. If , evaluating on the positive rank-one projection onto the negative-eigenvalue eigenspace gives a negative value, so it is not a state. Therefore
To obtain the representation dimension, cyclicity of trace gives
Thus identifies isometrically with the matrix space , with left multiplication as the representation. If , this space consists, after a unitary change of basis, of arbitrary first columns and zero remaining columns. Its complex dimension is . It is already complete because it is finite-dimensional. Rank is one at and two at , proving