Related papers: Bounded Normal Generation and Invariant Automatic …

We give a short and simple proof, utilizing the pre-determinant of P. de la Harpe and G. Skandalis, that the universal covering group of the unitary group of a II$_1$ von Neumann algebra $\mathcal{M}$, when equipped with the norm topology,…

The normal covering number $\gamma(G)$ of a finite, non-cyclic group $G$ is the least number of proper subgroups such that each element of $G$ lies in some conjugate of one of these subgroups. We prove that there is a positive constant $c$…

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…

Using methods of R.J.Tauer we exhibit an uncountable family of singular masas in the hyperfinite $\textrm{II}_1$ factor $\R$ all with Puk\'anszky invariant $\{1\}$, no pair of which are conjugate by an automorphism of $R$. This is done by…

We construct numerous continuous families of irreducible subfactors of the hyperfinite II$_1$ factor, which are non-isomorphic, but have all the same standard invariant. In particular, we obtain 1-parameter families of irreducible,…

We show that some derived $\mathrm{L}^1$ full groups provide examples of non simple Polish groups with the topological bounded normal generation property. In particular, it follows that there are Polish groups with the topological bounded…

We prove some "universality" results for topological dynamical systems. In particular, we show that for any continuous self-map $T$ of a perfect Polish space, one can find a dense, $T$-invariant set homeomorphic to the Baire space ${\mathbb…

We show that finitely generated irreducible $\mathrm{II}_1$ subfactors are generic in the following sense. Given a separable $\mathrm{II}_1$ factor $M$ and an integer $n\geq 2$, equip the set of $n$-tuples of self-adjoint operators in $M$…

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…

This paper addresses a conjecture of Kadison and Kastler that a von Neumann algebra M on a Hilbert space H should be unitarily equivalent to each sufficiently close von Neumann algebra N and, moreover, the implementing unitary can be chosen…

We examine the Polish group $H_{+}^{AC}$ of order-preserving self-homeomorphisms $f$ of the interval $\left[ 0,1 \right]$ for which both $f$ and $f^{-1}$ are absolutely continuous; in particular, we establish two results. First, we prove…

We introduce a framework allowing for key aspects of deformation/rigidity theory to be used in the study of continuous model theory of II$_1$ factors. Using this framework, we solve several well-known open problems in the area. For example,…

Let $G$ be a finite simple group. By a theorem of Guralnick and Kantor, $G$ contains a conjugacy class $C$ such that for each non-identity element $x \in G$, there exists $y \in C$ with $G = \langle x,y\rangle$. Building on this deep…

In finite group theory, chief factors play an important and well-understood role in the structure theory. We here develop a theory of chief factors for Polish groups. In the development of this theory, we prove a version of the Schreier…

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 obtain a Lie theoretic intrinsic characterization of the connected and simply connected solvable Lie groups whose regular representation is a factor representation. When this is the case, the corresponding von Neumann algebras are…

We consider the isometry group of the infinite dimensional separable hyperbolic space with its Polish topology. This topology is given by the pointwise convergence. For non-locally compact Polish groups, some striking phenomena like…

We consider actions of non-compact simple Lie groups preserving an analytic rigid geometric structure of algebraic type on a compact manifold. The structure is not assumed to be unimodular, so an invariant measure may not exist. Ergodic…

Let $G$ be a finite simple group. In this paper we consider the existence of small subsets $A$ of $G$ with the property that, if $y \in G$ is chosen uniformly at random, then with high probability $y$ invariably generates $G$ together with…

We establish rigidity theorems for graph product von Neumann algebras $M_\Gamma=*_{v,\Gamma}M_v$ associated to finite simple graphs $\Gamma$ and families of tracial von Neumann algebras $(M_v)_{v\in\Gamma}$. We consider the following three…