I recently came across C and W algebras which are basically just formalizations of the spaces we do quantum mechanics in.

Formally, we start with the following:

Definition: A CC^* algebra is a (complex) banach space (complete normed vector space) equipped with a unary operator (involution) * which satisfies the following:

  1. It is conjugate linear:

    (aλ+b)=aλˉ+b(a \lambda + b)^* = a^* \bar \lambda+ b^*
  2. It is antihomomorphic:

    (ab)=ba(a b)^* = b^* a^*
  3. C* Property-

    aa=a2\|a * a\| = \|a\|^2

A WW^* algebra is just a CC^* Algebra such that there exists a banach space which is it’s dual.

The intution I understand uptill now is to consider these as the hilbert space of state vectors where we do classical QM.