Related papers: Strongly solid ${\rm II_1}$ factors with an exotic…

We show that if G is a discrete group which does not have the Haagerup property but does have an unbounded cocycle into a C_0 representation and if G acts on a finite von Neumann algebra B such that the inclusion B \subset (B \rtimes G) has…

Given a II$_1$ factor $M$, a W$^*$-subalgebra $Q\subset M$ is {\it compressible} if for any $\varepsilon>0$ there exists a finite set of unitary elements $\Cal U_0\subset \Cal U(M)$ such that $\| \frac{1}{|\Cal U_0|}\sum_{u\in \Cal U_0}…

We consider $\text{\rm II}_1$ factors $L_\mu(G)$ arising from 2-cocyles $\mu \in \text{\rm H}^2(G,\Bbb T)$ on groups $G$ containing infinite normal subgroups $H \subset G$ with the relative property $\text{\rm(T)}$ (i.e. $G$ {\it w-rigid}).…

We prove that for any free ergodic nonsingular nonamenable action \Gamma\ \actson (X,\mu) of all \Gamma\ in a large class of groups including all hyperbolic groups, the associated group measure space factor $L^\infty(X) \rtimes \Gamma$ has…

We provide a fairly large class of II$_1$ factors $N$ such that $M=N\bar{\otimes}R$ has a unique McDuff decomposition, up to isomorphism, where $R$ denotes the hyperfinite II$_1$ factor. This class includes all II$_1$ factors…

We use the free entropy defined by D. Voiculescu to prove that the free group factors can not be decomposed as closed linear spans of noncommutative monomials in elements of nonprime subfactors or abelian $*$-subalgebras, if the degrees of…

We show that the unitary group of any SOT-separable $\mathrm{II}_1$ factor $M$, with the strong operator topology, is contractible. Combined with several old results, this implies that the same is true for any SOT-separable von Neumann…

Let A be a maximal abelian self-adjoint subalgebra (masa) in a type II_1 factor M acting via standard representation on L^2(M). The abelian von Neumann algebra A generated by A and JAJ has a type I commutant which contains the projection…

We show that a number of key structural properties transfer between sufficiently close II$_1$ factors, including solidity, strong solidity, uniqueness of Cartan masas and property $\Gamma$. We also examine II$_1$ factors close to tensor…

Suppose F is a finite set of selfadjoint elements in a tracial von Neumann algebra M. For $\alpha >0$, F is $\alpha$-bounded if the free packing $\alpha$-entropy of F is bounded from above. We say that M is strongly 1-bounded if M has a…

We provide a class of separable II$_1$ factors $M$ whose central sequence algebra is not the "tail" algebra associated to any decreasing sequence of von Neumann subalgebras of $M$. This settles a question of McDuff \cite{Mc69d}.

We show that the group factors of ICC lattices in either SO(n,1) or SU(n,1), n \geq 2, are strongly solid in the sense of Ozawa and Popa. This strengthens a result of Ozawa and Popa showing that these factors do not have Cartan subalgebras.

Let $M$ be a II$_1$ factor with a von Neumann subalgebra $Q\subset M$ that has infinite index under any projection in $Q'\cap M$ (e.g., $Q$ abelian; or $Q$ an irreducible subfactor with infinite Jones index). We prove that given any…

We construct a group measure space II$_1$ factor that has two non-conjugate Cartan subalgebras. We show that the fundamental group of the II$_1$ factor is trivial, while the fundamental group of the equivalence relation associated with the…

We prove that the radial subalgebra in free orthogonal quantum group factors is maximal abelian and mixing, and we compute the associated bimodule. The proof relies on new properties of the Jones-Wenzl projections and on an estimate of…

We study conjugacy orbits of certain types of subalgebras in tracial von Neumann algebras. For any separable II$_1$ factor $N_0$ we construct a highly indecomposable non Gamma II$_1$ factor $N$ such that $N_0 \subset N$ and moreover every…

We investigate the asymptotic structure of (possibly type III) crossed product von Neumann algebras $M = B \rtimes \Gamma$ arising from arbitrary actions $\Gamma \curvearrowright B$ of bi-exact discrete groups (e.g. free groups) on amenable…

To every subfactor planar algebra was associated a II_1 factor with a canonical abelian subalgebra generated by the cup tangle. Using Popa's approximative orthogonality property, we show that this cup subalgebra is maximal amenable.

For a right-angled Coxeter system $(W,S)$ and $q>0$, let $\mathcal{M}_q$ be the associated Hecke von Neumann algebra, which is generated by self-adjoint operators $T_s, s \in S$ satisfying the Hecke relation $(\sqrt{q}\: T_s - q) (\sqrt{q}…

Let $\Gamma$ be a countable group and let $\Gamma_0$ be an infinite abelian subgroup of $\Gamma$. We prove that if the pair $(\Gamma,\Gamma_0)$ satisfies some combinatorial condition called (SS), then the abelian subalgebra $A=L(\Gamma_0)$…