Related papers: The unitary group of a $\mathrm{II}_1$ factor is S…

We provide an alternative proof for the extreme amenability of the unitary group of the hyperfinite II${}_1$-factor von Neumann algebra, endowed with the strong operator topology.

We prove that the approximately inner automorphism group of a separable strongly stable von Neumann algebra is contractible in the u-topology. Thus the automorphism group of the hyperfinite type III_1 factor is contractible.

By a theorem of Dixmier-Douady the unitary group of an infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert space $H$ in the strong operator topology is contractible. The Dixmier-Douady proof is based on an explicit construction of families of subspaces…

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 show that any compact group can be realized as the outer automorphism group of a factor of type II_1. This has been proved in the abelian case by Ioana, Peterson and Popa applying Popa's deformation/rigidity techniques to amalgamated…

This is a continuation of our previous paper studying the structure of Cartan subalgebras of von Neumann factors of type II_1. We provide more examples of II_1 factors having either zero, one or several Cartan subalgebras. We also prove a…

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 prove that any separable II$_1$ factor $M$ admits a {\it coarse decomposition} over the hyperfinite II$_1$ factor $R$, i.e., there exists an embedding $R\hookrightarrow M$ such that $L^2M\ominus L^2R$ is a multiple of the coarse Hilbert…

We will show that if (\Omega,\Sigma,\mu) is an atomless positive measure space, X is a Banach space and 1\leq p<\infty, then the group of isometric automorphisms on the Bochner space L^{p}(\mu,X) is contractible in the strong operator…

For every $n\in \mathbb{N}$ we obtain a separable II$_1$ factor $M$ and a maximally abelian subalgebra $A\subset M$ such that the space of maximally amenable extensions of $A$ in $M$ is affinely identified with the $n$ dimensional…

We give sufficient conditions, in terms of the existence of unbounded derivations satisfying certain properties, which ensure that a II$_1$ factor $M$ is prime or has at most one Cartan subalgebra. For instance, we prove that if there…

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 prove that a type II$_1$ factor $M$ can have at most one Cartan subalgebra $A$ satisfying a combination of rigidity and compact approximation properties. We use this result to show that within the class $\Cal H \Cal T$ of factors $M$…

In the context of Free Probability Theory, we study two different constructions that provide new examples of factors of type ${\rm II_1}$ with prescribed fundamental group. First we investigate state-preserving group actions on the almost…

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 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,…

We describe majorization between selfadjoint operators in a $\sigma$-finite II$_\infty$ factor $(\mathcal{M},\tau)$ in terms of simple spectral relations. For a diffuse abelian von Neumann subalgebra $\mathcal{A}\subset \mathcal{M}$ with…

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…

Gromov constructed uncountably many pairwise non-isomorphic discrete groups with Kazhdan's property (T). We will show that no separable II_1-factor can contain all these groups in its unitary group. In particular, no separable II_1-factor…

If $N \subset \R$ is a separable II$_1$-factor, the space $\Hom(N,\R)$ of unitary equivalence classes of unital *-homomorphisms $N \to \R$ is shown to have a surprisingly rich structure. If $N$ is not hyperfinite, $\Hom(N,\R)$ is an…