UNIQUE ERGODICITY OF FREE SHIFTS AND SOME OTHER AUTOMORPHISMS OF C*-ALGEBRAS

A notion of unique ergodicity relative to the fixed-point subalgebra is defined for automorphisms of unital C*-algebras. It is proved that the free shift on any reduced amalgamated free product C*-algebra is uniquely ergodic relative to its fixed-point subalgebra, as are automorphisms of reduced group C*-algebras arising from certain automorphisms of groups. A generalization of Haagerup's inequality, yielding bounds on the norms of certain elements in reduced amalgamated free product C*-algebras, is proved.