English

The similarity problem and hyperreflexivity of von Neumann algebras

Operator Algebras 2024-01-18 v5

Abstract

The similarity problem is one of the most famous open problems in the theory of CC^*-algebras. We say that a CC^*-algebra \clA\cl A satisfies the similarity property ((SP) for short) if every bounded homomorphism u ⁣:\clA\clB(H)u\colon \cl A\to \cl B(H) is similar to a *-homomorphism and that a von Neumann algebra \clA\cl A satisfies the weak similarity property ((WSP) for short) if every w\mathrm{w}^*-conitnuous unital and bounded homomorphism u ⁣:\clA\clB(H),u\colon \cl A\to \cl B(H), where HH is a Hilbert space, is similar to a *-homomorphism. We prove that a von Neumann algebra \clA\cl A satisfies (WSP) if and only if the algebras \clAˉ\clB(2(I))\cl A^{\prime}\bar \otimes \cl B(\ell^2(I)) are hyperreflexive for all cardinals I.I. In the case in which \clA\cl A is a separably acting von Neumann algebra we prove that it satisfies (WSP) if and only if the algebra \clAˉ\clB(2(\bbN))\cl A^\prime \bar \otimes \cl B(\ell^2(\bb{N})) is hyperreflexive. We also introduce the hypothesis {\bf (CHH)}: Every hyperreflexive separably acting von Neumann algebra is completely hyperreflexive. We show that under {\bf (CHH)}, all CC^*-algebras satisfy (SP). Finally, we prove that the spatial tensor product \clAˉ\clB,\cl A\bar \otimes \cl B, where \clA\cl A is an injective von Neumann algebra and \clB\cl B is a von Neumann algebra satisfying (WSP), also satisfies (WSP) and we provide an upper bound for the w\text{w}^*-similarity degree d(\clAˉ\clB).d_{*}(\cl A\bar \otimes \cl B).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2306.07605,
  title  = {The similarity problem and hyperreflexivity of von Neumann algebras},
  author = {G. K. Eleftherakis and E. Papapetros},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.07605},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Revision. We withdrew the version 2 since the proof of Lemma 3.1 was not correct. The article is going to be published in the Journal of Operator Theory