Lectures on the Combinatorics of Free Probability

Alexandru Nica is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. Roland Speicher is a Professor of Mathematics at Queen's University, Kingston.

• Part I. Basic Concepts: 1. Non-commutative probability spaces and distributions; 2. A case study of non-normal distribution; 3. C*-probability spaces; 4. Non-commutative joint distributions; 5. Definition and basic properties of free independence; 6. Free product of *-probability spaces; 7. Free product of C*-probability spaces; Part II. Cumulants: 8. Motivation: free central limit theorem; 9. Basic combinatorics I: non-crossing partitions; 10. Basic Combinatorics II: Möbius inversion; 11. Free cumulants: definition and basic properties; 12. Sums of free random variables; 13. More about limit theorems and infinitely divisible distributions; 14. Products of free random variables; 15. R-diagonal elements; Part III. Transforms and Models: 16. The R-transform; 17. The operation of boxed convolution; 18. More on the 1-dimensional boxed convolution; 19. The free commutator; 20. R-cyclic matrices; 21. The full Fock space model for the R-transform; 22. Gaussian Random Matrices; 23. Unitary Random Matrices; Notes and Comments; Bibliography; Index.

"This book is an absolutely indispensable resource for anyone who works in free probability theory, as well as those (advanced undergraduates or graduate students, or professional researchers) newly initiated in the field. Lectures on the Combinatorics of Free Probabilityis sure to be considered one of the important informative texts in this rapidly growing field of study, and it is highly recommended for any reader or researcher in the field." Todd Kemp, Mathematical Reviews