English

Lamplighter groups and von Neumann's continuous regular rings

Rings and Algebras 2014-02-25 v1 Group Theory

Abstract

Let Γ\Gamma be a discrete group. Following Linnell and Schick one can define a continuous ring c(Γ)c(\Gamma) associated with Γ\Gamma. They proved that if the Atiyah Conjecture holds for a torsion-free group Γ\Gamma, then c(Γ)c(\Gamma) is a skew field. Also, if Γ\Gamma has torsion and the Strong Atiyah Conjecture holds for Γ\Gamma, then c(Γ)c(\Gamma) is a matrix ring over a skew field. The simplest example when the Strong Atiyah Conjecture fails is the lamplighter group Γ=Z2Z\Gamma=Z_2\wr Z. It is known that C(Z2Z)C(Z_2\wr Z) does not even have a classical ring of quotients. Our main result is that if HH is amenable, then c(Z2H)c(Z_2\wr H) is isomorphic to a continuous ring constructed by John von Neumann in the 1930s1930's.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1402.5499,
  title  = {Lamplighter groups and von Neumann's continuous regular rings},
  author = {Gabor Elek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.5499},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

16 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T03:13:37.448Z