The Laplacian (or radial) masa in a free group factor is generated by the sum of the generators and their inverses. We show that such a masa B is strongly singular and has Popa invariant delta(B) = 1. This is achieved by proving that the conditional expectation onto B is an asymptotic homomorphism. We also obtain similar results for the free product of discrete groups, each of which contains an element of infinite order.
It is shown that for the Laplacian masa in the free group factors, the orthocomplement of the associated Jones' projection is an infinite direct sum of coarse bimodules.
In this paper, we present a new class of strongly singular maximal abelian subalgebras living inside the k-folded tensor product of the free group factor (on N>1 generators). A. Sinclair and R. Smith introduced the class of strongly singular maximal abelian von Neumann algebras (MASA) of type II_1 factors. One of their examples was the Laplacian subalgebra of the free group factor, known to be a singularMASA. Using the techniques presented by A. Sinclair and R.Smith, we show that the Laplacian subalgebra of the k-folded tensor product of the free group factor with itself is a strongly singular…
In this paper we prove that for a type II_1 factor N with a Cartan maximal abelian subalgebra (masa), the Hochschild cohomology groups H^n(N,N)=0, for all n \geq 1. This generalizes the result of Sinclair and Smith, who proved this for all N having separable predual.
In this paper we introduce and study strongly singular maximal abelian self-adjoint subalgebras of type $II_1$ factors. We show that certain elements of free groups and of non-elementary hyperbolic groups generate such masas, and these also give new examples of masas for which Popa's invariant delta is 1. We also explore the connection between Popa's invariant and strong singularity.
Two classical theorems in matrix theory, due to Schur and Horn, relate the eigenvalues of a self-adjoint matrix to the diagonal entries. These have recently been given a formulation in the setting of operator algebras as the Schur-Horn problem, where matrix algebras and diagonals are replaced respectively by finite factors and maximal abelian self-adjoint subalgebras (masas). There is a special case of the problem, called the carpenter problem, which can be stated as follows: for a masa A in a finite factor M with conditional expectation E_A, can each x in A with 0 <= x <= 1 be expressed as E_…
Using methods of R.J.Tauer we exhibit an uncountable family of singular masas in the hyperfinite $\textrm{II}_1$ factor $\R$ all with Pukánszky invariant $\{1\}$, no pair of which are conjugate by an automorphism of $R$. This is done by introducing an invariant $Γ(A)$ for a masa $A$ in a \IIi factor $N$ as the maximal size of a projection $e\in A$ for which $A e$ contains non-trivial centralising sequences for $eN e$. The masas produced give rise to a continuous map from the interval $[0,1]$ into the singular masas in $\R$ equiped with the $d_{\infty,2}$-metric. A result is also given showing …
The measure-multiplicity-invariant for masas in $\rm{II}_{1}$ factors was introduced in \cite{MR2261688} to distinguish masas that have the same Pukánszky invariant. In this paper we study the measure class in the measure-multiplicity-invariant. This is equivalent to studying the standard Hilbert space as an associated bimodule. We characterize the type of any masa depending on the left-right-measure using Baire category methods (selection principle of Jankov and von Neumann). We present a second proof of Chifan's result on normalisers and a measure theoretic proof of the equivalence of weak a…
We investigate maximal abelian subalgebras (masas) in separably acting type $II_1$ factors. We use the notion of distance between masas which we introduced in an earlier paper in this archive, OA/0107075. The main result of the paper is to show that for any unitary u and a masa A, the distance between A and uAu* is comparable to the distance in 2-norm from u to the unitary normalizer N(A) of A. In qualitative terms, this says that a unitary almost normalizes A if and only if it is close to a normalizing unitary. Inequalities in the paper make this statement quantitatively precise. As a consequ…
The radial (or Laplacian) masa in a free group factor is the abelian von Neumann algebra generated by the sum of the generators (of the free group) and their inverses. The main result of this paper is that the radial masa is a maximal injective von Neumann subalgebra of a free group factor. We also investigate tensor products of maximal injective algebras. Given two inclusions $B_i\subset M_i$ of type $\mathrm{I}$ von Neumann algebras in finite von Neumann algebras such that each $B_i$ is maximal injective in $M_i$, we show that the tensor product $B_1\ \bar{\otimes}\ B_2$ is maximal injective…
In this paper, we give examples of maximal amenable subalgebras of the free group factor of two generators. More precisely, we consider two copies of the hyperfinite factor $R_i$ of type $\mathrm{II}_1$. From each $R_i$, we take a Haar unitary $u_i$ which generates a Cartan subalgebra of it. We show that the von Neumann subalgebra generated by the self-adjoint operator $u_1+u_1^{-1}+u_2+u_2^{-1}$ is maximal amenable in the free product. This provides infinitely many non-unitary conjugate maximal amenable MASAs.
We consider an iterative procedure for constructing maximal abelian $^*$-subalgebras (MASAs) satisfying prescribed properties in II$_1$ factors. This method pairs well with the intertwining by bimodules technique and with properties of the MASA and of the ambient factor that can be described locally. We obtain such a local characterization for II$_1$ factors $M$ that have an {\it s-MASA}, $A\subset M$ (i.e., for which $A \vee JAJ$ is maximal abelian in $\Cal B(L^2M)$), and use this strategy to prove that any factor in this class has uncountably many non-intertwinable singular (respectively sem…
In 1960 Pukánszky introduced an invariant associating to every masa in a separable $\mathrm{II}_1$ factor a non-empty subset of $\mathbb N\cup\{\infty\}$. This invariant examines the multiplicity structure of the von Neumann algebra generated by the left-right action of the masa. In this paper it is shown that every non-empty subset of $\mathbb N\cup\{\infty\}$ arises as the Pukánszky invariant of some masa in a separable McDuff $\mathrm{II}_1$ factor which contains a masa with Pukánszky invariant $\{1\}$. In particular the hyperfinite $\mathrm{II}_1$ factor and all separable McDuff $\mathrm{I…
In this paper we study relations between the \emph{left-right-measure} and properties of singular masas. Part of the analysis is mainly concerned with masas for which the \emph{left-right-measure} is the class of product measure. We provide examples of Tauer masas in the hyperfinite $\rm{II}_{1}$ factor whose \emph{left-right-measure} is the class of Lebesgue measure. We show that for each subset $S\subseteq \mathbb{N}$, there exist uncountably many pairwise non conjugate singular masas in the free group factors with \emph{Pukánszky invariant} $S\cup\{\infty\}$.
A singular masa $A$ in a $\rm{II}_{1}$ factor $N$ is defined by the property that any unitary $w\in N$ for which $A=wAw^*$ must lie in $A$. A strongly singular masa $A$ is one that satisfies the inequality $$\| E_A- E_{wAw^*}\|_{\infty,2}\geq\|w- E_A(w)\|_2$$ for all unitaries $w\in N$, where $E_A$ is the conditional expectation of $N$ onto $A$, and $\|\cdot\|_{\infty,2}$ is defined for bounded maps $ϕ:N\to N$ by $\sup\{\|ϕ(x)\|_2:x\in N, \|x\|\leq 1\}$. Strong singularity easily implies singularity, and the main result of this paper shows the reverse implication.
We present families of pairs of finite von Neumann algebras $A\subset M$ where $A$ is a maximal injective masa in the type $\mathrm{II}_1$ factor $M$ with separable predual. Our results make use of the strong mixing and the asymptotic orthogonality properties of $A$ in $M$ and are borrowed from ideas of S. Popa who proved that if $G$ is a non abelian free group and if $a$ is one of its generators, then the von Neumann algebra generated by $a$ is maximal injective in the factor $L(G)$. Our results apply to pairs $H<G$ where $H$ is an infinite abelian subgroup of a suitable amalgamated product g…
Let $A$ be a maximal abelian subalgebra (MASA) in a \II1 factor $M$. Sorin Popa introduced an analytic condition that can be used to identify the normalizing algebra of $A$ in $M$ and which we call \emph{the relative weak asymptotic homomorphism property}. In this paper we show this property is always satisfied by the normalizing algebra of $A$ in $M$ and as a consequence we obtain that $\bar{\bigotimes}_{i\in I}(\mathcal{N}_{M_{i}}(A_{i})^{\prime\prime})= (\mathcal{N}_{\bar{\bigotimes}_{i\in I}M_{i}}(\bar{\otimes}%_{i\in I} A_{i}))^{\prime\prime}$ .
To any strongly continuous orthogonal representation of $\R$ on a real Hilbert space $\CH_\R$, Hiai constructed $q$-deformed Araki-Woods von Neumann algebras for $-1< q< 1$, which are $W^{\ast}$-algebras arising from non tracial representations of the $q$-commutation relations, the latter yielding an interpolation between the Bosonic and Fermionic statistics. We prove that if the orthogonal representation is not ergodic then these von Neumann algebras are factors whenever $dim(\CH_\R)\geq 2$ and $q\in (-1,1)$. In such case, the centralizer of the $q$-quasi free state has trivial relative commu…
We show that any type ${\rm III_1}$ factor with separable predual satisfying Connes' Bicentralizer Property (CBP) has a singular maximal abelian $\ast$-subalgebra that is the range of a normal conditional expectation. We also investigate stability properties of CBP under finite index extensions/restrictions of type ${\rm III_1}$ factors.
This paper studies weakly mixing (singular) and mixing masas in type $\rm{II}_{1}$ factors from a bimodule point of view. Several necessary and sufficient conditions to characterize the normalizing algebra of a masa are presented. We also study the structure of mixing inclusions, with special attention paid to masas of product class. A recent result of Jolissaint and Stalder concerning mixing masas arising out of inclusions of groups is revisited. One consequence of our structural results rules out the existence of certain Koopman-realizable measures, arising from semidirect products, which ar…
We prove that the radial masa C in the free group factor is disjoint from other maximal amenable subalgebras in the following sense: any distinct maximal amenable subalgebra cannot have diffuse intersection with C.
In 1965 Tauer produced a countably infinite family of semi-regular masas in the hyperfinite $\mathrm{II}_1$ factor, no pair of which are conjugate by an automorphism. This was achieved by iterating the process of passing to the algebra generated by the normalisers and, for each $n\in\mathbb N$, finding masas for which this procedure terminates at the $n$-th stage. Such masas are said to have length $n$. In this paper we consider a transfinite version of this idea, giving rise to a notion of ordinal valued length. We show that all countable ordinals arise as lengths of semi-regular masas in the…
We prove that if $A$ is a singular MASA in a II$_1$ factor $M$ and $ω$ is a free ultrafilter, then for any $x\in M\ominus A$, with $\|x\|\leq 1$, and any $n\geq 2$, there exists a partition of $1$ with projections $p_1, p_2, ..., p_n\in A^ω$ (i.e. a {\it paving}) such that $\|Σ_{i=1}^n p_i x p_i\|\leq 2\sqrt{n-1}/n$, and give examples where this is sharp. Some open problems on optimal pavings are discussed.
In this paper, we exhibit strongly singular maximal abelian subalgebras living inside certain k-folded tensors of von Neumann group factors. The two classes of groups under consideration are the free groups of rank greater than 2 and the free product of m>2 groups, all finite and having the same order p>2 (m>p-1). We prove actually more, namely that the unique trace preserving conditional expectations from these group factors onto their Laplacian subalgebras are asymptotic homomorphisms, which in turn implies that the subalgebras are strongly singular masas.
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 e_A from L^2(M) onto L^2(A). Then A'(1-e_A) decomposes into a direct sum of type I_n algebras for n in {1,2,...,\infty}, and those n's which occur in the direct sum form a set called the Pukanszky invariant, Puk(A), also denoted Puk_M(A) when the containing factor is ambiguous. In this paper we show that this invariant can take on the values S\cup {\infty} whe…
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 certain scalar products of coefficients of irreducible representations.
Let M be a II_1 factor, A a masa in M and E the unique conditional expectation on A. Under some technical assumptions on the inclusion of A in M, which hold true for any semiregular masa of a separable factor, we show that for every discrete a in the positive part of the unit ball of A it is possible to find a projection p in M such that E(p)=a$. We also show an example of a diffuse operator x in A such that there exists a projection q in M with E(q)=x. These results show a new family of instances of a conjecture by Kadison, the so-called "Carpenter's Theorem".
We consider two von Neumann subalgebras $\cl B_0$ and $\cl B$ of a type ${\rm{II}}_1$ factor $\cl N$. For a map $ϕ$ on $\cl N$, we define \[\|ϕ\|_{\infty,2}=\sup\{\|ϕ(x)\|_2\colon \|x\| \leq 1\},\] and we measure the distance between $\cl B_0$ and $\cl B$ by the quantity $\|{\bb E}_{\cl B_0}-{\bb E}_{\cl B}\|_{\infty,2}$. Under the hypothesis that the relative commutant in $\cl N$ of each algebra is equal to its center, we prove that close subalgebras have large compressions which are spatially isomorphic by a partial isometry close to 1 in the $\|\cdot \|_2$--norm. This hypothesis is satisfie…
Given a II$_1$ factor M and a masa A of M, we prove a version of the Schur-Horn Theorem, together with a contractive version. These results are inspired on a recent conjecture of Arveson and Kadison (math.OA/0508482).
Let $G$ be a connected semisimple real algebraic group. Assume that $G(\bb R)$ has no compact factors and let $Γ$ be a torsion-free uniform lattice subgroup of $G(\bb R)$. Then $Γ$ contains a malnormal abelian subgroup $A$. This implies that the $\tto$ factor $\vn(Γ)$ contains a masa $\fk A$ with Pukánszky invariant $\{\infty\}$.
We study analogues of the radial subalgebras in free group factors (called the algebras of class functions) in the setting of compact quantum groups. For the free orthogonal quantum groups we show that they are not MASAs, as soon as we are in a non-Kac situation. The most important notion to our present work is that of a (quasi-)split inclusion. We prove that the inclusion of the algebra of class functions is quasi-split for some unitary quantum groups; in this case the subalgebra is non-abelian and we also obtain a result concerning its relative commutant. In the positive direction, we constr…
