Related papers: Unbounded derivations, free dilations and indecomp…

We study Cartan subalgebras in the context of amalgamated free product II$_1$ factors and obtain several uniqueness and non-existence results. We prove that if $\Gamma$ belongs to a large class of amalgamated free product groups (which…

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 prove that if $\Gamma$ is an icc irreducible lattice in a product of connected non-compact rank one simple Lie groups with finite center, then the II$_1$ factor $L(\Gamma)$ is prime. In particular, we deduce that the II$_1$ factors…

We prove that for any free ergodic probability measure preserving action $\Gamma \actson (X,\mu)$ of a non-elementary hyperbolic group, or a lattice in a rank one simple Lie group, the associated group measure space II_1 factor $L^\infty(X)…

We prove that the normalizer of any diffuse amenable subalgebra of a free group factor $L(\Bbb F_r)$ generates an amenable von Neumann subalgebra. Moreover, any II$_1$ factor of the form $Q \vt L(\Bbb F_r) $, with $Q$ an arbitrary subfactor…

We introduce the notion of L^2-rigidity for von Neumann algebras, a generalization of property (T) which can be viewed as an analogue for the vanishing of 1-cohomology into the left regular representation of a group. We show that…

We prove that for any free ergodic probability measure preserving action \F_n \actson (X,\mu) of a free group on n generators \F_n, 2 \leq n \leq \infty, the associated group measure space II_1 factor $L^\infty(X) \rtimes \F_n$ has…

We prove that any II$_1$ factor $L^{\infty}(X)\rtimes\Gamma$ arising from a compact, free, ergodic, probability measure preserving action of a countable group $\Gamma$ with positive first $\ell^2$-Betti number, has a unique group measure…

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 construct a class of II_1 factors M that admit unclassifiably many Cartan subalgebras in the sense that the equivalence relation of being conjugate by an automorphism of M is complete analytic, in particular non Borel. We also construct…

We investigate Cartan subalgebras in nontracial amalgamated free product von Neumann algebras $M_1 \ast_B M_2$ over an amenable von Neumann subalgebra $B$. First, we settle the problem of the absence of Cartan subalgebra in arbitrary free…

We show that, for many choices of finite tuples of generators $X = (x_1, \dots , x_d)$ of a tracial von Neumann algebra $(M, \tau)$ satisfying certain decomposition properties (non-primeness, possessing a Cartan subalgebra, or property…

We introduce a new iterative amalgamated free product construction of II$_1$ factors, and use it to construct a separable II$_1$ factor which does not have property Gamma and is not elementarily equivalent to the free group factor…

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 prove that every group measure space II$_1$ factor $L^{\infty}(X)\rtimes\Gamma$ coming from a free ergodic rigid (in the sense of [Po01]) probability measure preserving action of a group $\Gamma$ with positive first $\ell^2$--Betti…

Let $M_n$ be a sequence of finite factors with $\dim(M_n)\rightarrow \infty$ and denote $\text{\bf M}=\Pi_\omega M_n$ their ultraproduct over a free ultrafilter $\omega$. We prove that if $\text{\bf Q}\subset \text{\bf M}$ is either an…

Using an extension of techniques of Ozawa and Popa, we give an example of a non-amenable strongly solid $\rm{II}_1$ factor $M$ containing an "exotic" maximal abelian subalgebra $A$: as an $A$,$A$-bimodule, $L^2(M)$ is neither coarse nor…

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 if a separable II$_1$ factor $M$ is existentially closed, then every $M$-bimodule is weakly contained in the trivial $M$-bimodule, $\text{L}^2(M)$, and, equivalently, every normal completely positive map on $M$ is a pointwise…

In [J. Algebra 452 (2016), 372-389], we characterise when the sequence of free subgroup numbers of a finitely generated virtually free group $\Gamma$ is ultimately periodic modulo a given prime power. Here, we show that, in the remaining…