Partial {$*$}-algebras of closable operators. II. States and representations of partial {$*$}-algebras

This second paper on partial Op*-algebras is devoted to the theory of representations. A new definition of invariant positive sesquilinear forms on partial *-algebras is proposed, which enables to perform the familiar GNS construction. In order to get a better control of the corresponding representations, we introduce and study a restricted class of partial Op*-algebras, called partial GW*-algebras, which turn up naturally in a number of problems. As an example, we extend Powers' results about the standardness of GNS representations of abelian partial *-algebras.