Subharmonic projections for a quantum Markov semigroup

This article introduces a concept of subharmonic projections for a quantum Markov semigroup, in view of characterizing the support projection of a stationary state in terms of the semigroup generator. These results, together with those of our previous article [J. Math. Phys. 42, 1296 (2001)], lead to a method for proving the existence of faithful stationary states. This is often crucial in the analysis of ergodic properties of quantum Markov semigroups. The method is illustrated by applications to physical models.