For each 1<s<\infty, a Popa algebra A_s is constructed that embeds as a weakly dense C*-subalgebra of the interpolated free group factor L(F_s). Certain approximation properties for A_s are shown. It follows that L(F_s) has the weak expectation property of Lance with respect to A_s. In the course of the demonstration, it is proved that under certain conditions, full amalgamated free products of matrix algebras are residually finite dimensional.
Using various finite dimensional approximation properties, four convex subsets of the tracial space of a unital C*-algebra are defined. Applications of these tracial invariants include: (1) An analogue of Szego's limit theorem for arbitrary self adjoint operators. (2) A McDuff factor embeds into the ultrapower of the hyperfinite II_1 factor if and only if it contains a weakly dense operator system which is injective. (3) There exists a simple, quasidiagonal, real rank zero C*-algebra with non-hyperfinite II_1 factor representations and which is not tracially AF. This answers negatively questio…
We survey Sorin Popa's recent work on Bernoulli actions. The paper was written on the occasion of the Bourbaki seminar. Using very original methods from operator algebras, Sorin Popa has shown that the orbit structure of the Bernoulli action of a property (T) group, completely remembers the group and the action. This information is even essentially contained in the crossed product von Neumann algebra, yielding the first von Neumann strong rigidity theorem in the literature. The same methods allow Popa to obtain II_1 factors with prescribed countable fundamental group.
In this paper we examine bases for finite index inclusion of $II_1$ factors and connected inclusion of finite dimensional $C^*$- algebras. These bases behave nicely with respect to basic construction towers. As applications we have studied automorphisms of the hyperfinite $II_1$ factor $R$ which are `compatible with respect to the Jones' tower of finite dimensional $C^*$-algebras'. As a further application, in both cases we obtain a characterization, in terms of bases, of basic constructions. Finally we use these bases to describe the phenomenon of multistep basic constructions (in both the ca…
An open question of Sorin Popa asks whether or not every $R^{\mathcal{U}}$-embeddable factor admits an embedding into $R^{\mathcal{U}}$ with factorial relative commutant. We show that there is a locally universal McDuff II$_1$ factor $M$ such that every property (T) factor admits an embedding into $M^{\mathcal{U}}$ with factorial relative commutant. We also discuss how our strategy could be used to settle Popa's question for property (T) factors if a certain open question in the model theory of operator algebras has a positive solution.
The subject of quasidiagonality is of much interest in many places - among other things, in the classification program for simple unital separable nuclear C*-algebras. In this note, we give two characterizations of nuclearity and quasidiagonality (for simple unital separable C*-algebras). Our first characterization is the nuclear analogue of Dadarlat's characterization of exact quasidiagonal C*-algebras. Our second characterizatiion is "dual" to the interesting (and important) Popa property first studied by Popa.
We show that the group factors of ICC lattices in either SO(n,1) or SU(n,1), n \geq 2, are strongly solid in the sense of Ozawa and Popa. This strengthens a result of Ozawa and Popa showing that these factors do not have Cartan subalgebras.
For an inclusion of the form $\Bbb C\subseteq M_n(\Bbb C)$, where $M_n(\Bbb C)$ is endowed with a state with diagonal weights $λ=(λ_1, ..., λ_n)$, we use Popa's construction, for non-tracial states, to obtain an irreducible inclusion of $II_1$ factors, $N^λ(Q)\subseteq M^λ(Q) $ of index $\sum \frac{1}{λ_i}$. $M^λ(Q)$ is identified with a subfactor inside the centralizer algebra of the canonical free product state on $Q\star M_N(\Bbb C)$. Its structure is described by ``infinite'' semicircular elements as in \cite{Ra3}. The irreducible subfactor inclusions obtained by this method are similar to…
We investigate the use of Popa's asymptotic orthogonality to establish maximal amenability for amalgamated free product von Neumann algebras. Although new techniques have recently been developed to consider amalgamated free products, we find that the technique developed by Popa in the 1980s can be used to demonstrate maximal amenability for a certain family of amalgamated free product von Neumann algebras.
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 free product von Neumann algebras. Our methods are a generalization of theirs.
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.
In this paper we provide new examples of property (T) group factors with trivial fundamental group thereby providing more evidence towards Popa's conjecture on triviality of fundamental groups for property (T) group factors (page 9 \cite{Po13}; see also Problem 2, page 551 in Connes' book \cite{Co94}). Our groups arise as direct product of groups either in Class $\mathscr S$ or Class $\mathscr V$, as introduced in \cite{CDHK20}. We establish a unique prime factorization result for these product groups, thereby providing more evidence towards Popa's conjecture on prime decomposition of property…
We prove that every group measure space II$_1$ factor $L^{\infty}(X)\rtimesΓ$ coming from a free ergodic rigid (in the sense of [Po01]) probability measure preserving action of a group $Γ$ with positive first $\ell^2$--Betti number, has a unique group measure space Cartan subalgebra, up to unitary conjugacy. We deduce that many $\Cal H\Cal T$ factors, including the II$_1$ factors associated with the actions $Γ\curvearrowright \Bbb T^2$ and $Γ\curvearrowright$ SL$_2(\Bbb R)$/SL$_2(\Bbb Z)$, where $Γ$ is a non--amenable subgroup of SL$_2(\Bbb Z)$, have a unique group measure space Cartan subalge…
We give a diagrammatic description of Popa's symmetric enveloping algebras associated to planar algebra subfactors. As an application we construct a natural family of derivations on these factors, and compute a certain free entropy dimension type quantity.
We investigate the singular subspace of an inclusion of tracial von Neumann algebras. The singular subspace is a canonical N-N subbimodule of L^{2}(M) and it contains the quasinormalizer introduced by Popa, one-sided quasinormalizer introduced by Fang-Gao-Smith, and wq-normalizer introduced in Galatan-Popa (following upon work in Ioana-Peterson-Popa and Popa). We then obtain a weak notion of regularity (called spectral regularity) by demanding that the singular subspace of N in M generates M. By abstracting Voiculescu's original proof of absence of Cartan subalgebras, we show that there can be…
Let $\mathbb{G}$ be a free (unitary or orthogonal) quantum group. We prove that for any non-amenable subfactor $N\subset L^\infty(\mathbb{G})$, which is an image of a faithful normal conditional expectation, and for any $σ$-finite factor $B$, the tensor product $N \otimes B$ has no Cartan subalgebras. This generalizes our previous work that provides the same result when $B$ is finite. In the proof, we establish Ozawa--Popa and Popa--Vaes's weakly compact action on the continuous core of $N \otimes B$ as the one relative to B, by using an operator valued weight to B and the central weak amenabi…
Various subsets of the tracial state space of a unital C*-algebra are studied. The largest of these subsets has a natural interpretation as the space of invariant means. II_1-factor representations of a class of C*-algebras considered by Sorin Popa are also studied. These algebras are shown to have an unexpected variety of II_1-factor representations. This general theory is related to various other problems as well. Applications include: (1) A characterization of R^ω-embeddable factors in terms of Lance's WEP. (2) A classification theorem for certain simple, nuclear C*-algebras with unique tra…
In this note, we will point out, as a corollary of Popa's rigidity theory, that the crossed product von Neumann algebras for Bernoulli shifts cannot have relative property T. This is an operator algebra analogue of the theorem shown by Neuhauser and Cherix-Martin-Valette for discrete groups. Our proof is different from that for groups.
In recent joint work with V. Jones and D. Shlyakhtenko, we have given a diagrammatic description of Popa's symmetric enveloping inclusion for planar algebra subfactors. In this paper we give a diagrammatic construction of the associated Jones tower, in the case that the planar algebra is finite-depth. We then use this construction to describe the planar algebra of the symmetric enveloping inclusion, which is known to be isomorphic to the planar algebra of Ocneanu's asymptotic inclusion by a result of Popa. As an application we give a planar algebraic computation of the (reduced) fusion algebra…
Using a family of graded algebra structures on a planar algebra and a family of traces coming from random matrix theory, we obtain a tower of non-commutative probability spaces, naturally associated to a given planar algebra. The associated von Neumann algebras are II$_{1}$ factors whose inclusions realize the given planar algebra as a system of higher relative commutants. We thus give an alternative proof to a result of Popa that every planar algebra can be realized by a subfactor.
We consider the tracial crossed product algebra $M=A\rtimesΛ$ arising from a trace preserving action $σ:Λ\curvearrowright A$ of a discrete group $Λ$ on a tracial von Neumann algebra $A$. For a unitary subgroup $\mathcal{G}\subset \mathcal{U}(M)$, we study when this $\mathcal{G}$ can be conjugated into $\mathcal{U}(A)\cdotΛ$ in $M$. We provide a general sufficient condition for this to happen. Our result generalizes a result of Ioana, Popa and Vaes, which treats the case when $M$ is the group von Neumann algebra $L(Λ)$.
We investigate the position of amenable subalgebras in arbitrary amalgamated free product von Neumann algebras $M = M_1 \ast_B M_2$. Our main result states that under natural analytic assumptions, any amenable subalgebra of $M$ that has a large intersection with $M_1$ is actually contained in $M_1$. The proof does not rely on Popa's asymptotic orthogonality property but on the study of non normal conditional expectations.
We prove a Kurosh type theorem for free-product type II_1 factors. In particular, if M = LF_2 \otimes R, then the free-product type II_1 factors M*...*M are all prime and pairwise non-isomorphic. This paper is a continuation of [N. Ozawa, Solid von Neumann algebras] and [N. Ozawa and S. Popa, Some prime factorization results for type II_1 factors].
In this article, we investigate a unique prime factorization property for infinite tensor product factors. We provide several examples of type II and III factors which satisfy this property, including all free product factors with diffuse free product components. In the type III setting, this is the first classification result for infinite tensor product non-amenable factors. Our proof is based on Popa's intertwining techniques and a characterization of relative amenability on the continuous cores.
To every subfactor planar algebra was associated a II_1 factor with a canonical abelian subalgebra generated by the cup tangle. Using Popa's approximative orthogonality property, we show that this cup subalgebra is maximal amenable.
We use the free entropy defined by D. Voiculescu to prove that the free group factors can not be decomposed as closed linear spans of noncommutative monomials in elements of nonprime subfactors or abelian $*$-subalgebras, if the degrees of monomials have an upper bound depending on the number of generators. The resulting estimates for the hyperfinite and abelian dimensions of free group factors settle in the affirmative a conjecture of L. Ge and S. Popa (for infinitely many generators).
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.
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 $\bar{\bigotimes}_{i\in I}(\mathcal{N}_{M_{i}}(A_{i})^{\prime\prime})= (\mathcal{N}_{\bar{\bigotimes}_{i\in I}M_{i}}(\bar{\otimes}%_{i\in I} A_{i}))^{\prime\prime}$ .
We prove some unique factorization results for tensor products of free quantum group factors. They are type III analogues of factorization results for direct products of bi-exact groups established by Ozawa and Popa. In the proof, we first take continuous cores of the tensor products, which satisfy a condition similar to condition (AO), and discuss some factorization properties for the continuous cores. We then deduce factorization properties for the original type III factors. We also prove some unique factorization results for crossed product von Neumann algebras by direct products of bi-exac…
Popa introduced the tensor category $\tildeχ(M)$ of approximately inner, centrally trivial bimodules of a $\rm{II}_{1}$ factor $M$, generalizing Connes' $χ(M)$. We extend Popa's notions to define the $\rm W^*$-tensor category $\operatorname{End}_{\rm loc}(\mathcal{C})$ of local endofunctors on a $\rm W^*$-category $\mathcal{C}$. We construct a unitary braiding on $\operatorname{End}_{\rm loc}(\mathcal{C})$, giving a new construction of a braided tensor category associated to an arbitrary $\rm W^*$-category. For the $\rm W^*$-category of finite modules over a $\rm{II}_{1}$ factor, this yields a…
We investigate factoriality, Connes' type ${\rm III}$ invariants and fullness of arbitrary amalgamated free product von Neumann algebras using Popa's deformation/rigidity theory. Among other things, we generalize many previous structural results on amalgamated free product von Neumann algebras and we obtain new examples of full amalgamated free product factors for which we can explicitely compute Connes' type ${\rm III}$ invariants.
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…
We study the Haagerup property for C*-algebras. We first give new examples of C*-algebras with the Haagerup property. A nuclear C*-algebra with a faithful tracial state always has the Haagerup property, and the permanence of the Haagerup property for C*-algebras is established. As a consequence, the class of all C*-algebras with the Haagerup property turns out to be quite large. We then apply Popa's results and show the C*-algebras with property (T) have a certain rigidity property. Unlike the case of von Neumann algebras, for the reduced group C*-algebras of groups with relative property (T),…
The literature contains interesting examples of inclusions of simple C$^*$-algebras with the property that all intermediate C$^*$-algebras likewise are simple. In this article we take up a systematic study of such inclusions, which we refer to as being C$^*$-irreducible by the analogy that all intermediate von Neumann algebras of an inclusion of factors are again factors precisely when the given inclusion is irreducible. We give an intrinsic characterization of when an inclusion of C$^*$-algebras is C$^*$-irreducible, and use this to revisit known and exhibit new C$^*$-irreducible inclusions a…
On page 43 in \cite{Po83} Sorin Popa asked whether the following property holds: \emph{If $ω$ is a free ultrafilter on $\mathbb N$ and $\mathcal R_1\subseteq \mathcal R$ is an irreducible inclusion of hyperfinite II$_1$ factors such that $\mathcal R'\cap \mathcal R^ω\subseteq \mathcal R^ω_1$ does it follows that $\mathcal R_1=\mathcal R$?} In this short note we provide an affirmative answer to this question.
Sorin Popa initiated the study of Polish groups which are embeddable into the unitary group of a separable finite von Neumann algebra. Such groups are called of finite type. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for Polish groups to be of finite type, and construct exmaples of such groups from semifinite von Neumann algebras. We also discuss permanence properties of finite type groups under various algebraic operations. Finally we close the paper with some questions concerning Polish groups of finite type.
Motivated by the relation between the Drinfeld double and central property (T) for quantum groups, given a rigid C*-tensor category C and a unitary half-braiding on an ind-object, we construct a *-representation of the fusion algebra of C. This allows us to present an alternative approach to recent results of Popa and Vaes, who defined C*-algebras of monoidal categories and introduced property (T) for them. As an example we analyze categories C of Hilbert bimodules over a II$_1$-factor. We show that in this case the Drinfeld center is monoidally equivalent to a category of Hilbert bimodules ov…
Motivated by Popa's seminal work \cite{Po04}, in this paper, we provide a fairly large class of examples of group actions $Γ\curvearrowright X$ satisfying the extended Neshveyev-Størmer rigidity phenomenon \cite{NS03}: whenever $Λ\curvearrowright Y$ is a free ergodic pmp action and there is a $\ast$-isomorphism $Θ:L^\infty(X)\rtimes Γ\rightarrow L^\infty(Y)\rtimes Λ$ such that $Θ(L(Γ))=L(Λ)$ then the actions $Γ\curvearrowright X$ and $Λ\curvearrowright Y$ are conjugate (in a way compatible with $Θ$). We also obtain a complete description of the intermediate subalgebras of all (possibly non-fre…
A group $G$ is called $W^*$-superrigid (resp. $C^*$-superrigid) if it is completely recognizable from its von Neumann algebra $L(G)$ (resp. reduced $C^*$-algebra $C_r^*(G)$). Developing new technical aspects in Popa's deformation/rigidity theory we introduce several new classes of $W^*$-superrigid groups which appear as direct products, semidirect products with non-amenable core and iterations of amalgamated free products and HNN-extensions. As a byproduct we obtain new rigidity results in $C^*$-algebra theory including additional examples of $C^*$-superrigid groups and explicit computations o…
Using Voiculsecu's free entropy, it is shown that the free group factors L(F_n) lack property C of Popa and that they lack finite multiplicity abelian subalgebras. Property C is an assymptotic commutivity property.
We introduce the notion of proper proximality for finite von Neumann algebras, which naturally extends the notion of proper proximality for groups. Apart from the group von Neumann algebras of properly proximal groups, we provide a number of additional examples, including examples in the settings of free products, crossed products, and compact quantum groups. Using this notion, we answer a question of Popa by showing that the group von Neumann algebra of a nonamenable inner amenable group cannot embed into a free group factor. We also introduce a notion of proper proximality for probability me…
We calculate the microstates free entropy dimension of natural generators in an amalgamated free product of certain von Neumann algebras, with amalgamation over a hyperfinite subalgebra. In particular, some `exotic' Popa algebra generators of free group factors are shown to have the expected free entropy dimension. We also show that microstates and non--microstates free entropy dimension agree for generating sets of many groups. In the appendix by Wolfgang Lueck, the first L^2-Betti number for certain amalgamated free products of groups is calculated.
Ozawa showed that for any i.c.c., hyperbolic group, the associated group factor is solid. Developing a new approach that combines some methods of Peterson, Ozawa and Popa, and Ozawa, we strengthen this result by showing that these factors are strongly solid. Using our methods in cooperation with a cocycle superrigidity result of Ioana, we show that profinite actions of lattices in Sp(n,1), n>1, are virtually W*-superrigid.
Applying Popa's orthogonality method to a new class of groups, we construct amenable group factors which are prime and have no infinite dimensional regular abelian *-subalgebras. By adjusting Farah--Katsura's solution of Dixmier's problem to the von Neumann algebra setting, we obtain the first examples of prime AFD factors and tensorially prime simple AF-algebras. Our results are proved in ZFC, thus in particular answering questions asked by Farah--Hathaway--Katsura--Tikuisis. We also directly determine central sequences of certain crossed products. This concludes the failure of the Kirchberg …
We show that if $Γ= Γ_1\times\dotsb\times Γ_n$ is a product of $n\geq 2$ non-elementary ICC hyperbolic groups then any discrete group $Λ$ which is $W^*$-equivalent to $Γ$ decomposes as a $k$-fold direct sum exactly when $k=n$. This gives a group-level strengthening of Ozawa and Popa's unique prime decomposition theorem by removing all assumptions on the group $Λ$. This result in combination with Margulis' normal subgroup theorem allows us to give examples of lattices in the same Lie group which do not generate stably equivalent II$_1$ factors.
We show that the orthogonal free quantum groups are not inner amenable and we construct an explicit proper cocycle weakly contained in the regular representation. This strengthens the result of Vaes and the second author, showing that the associated von Neumann algebras are full II_1-factors and Brannan's result showing that the orthogonal free quantum groups have Haagerup's approximation property. We also deduce Ozawa-Popa's property strong (HH) and give a new proof of Isono's result about strong solidity.
The main result of this paper is a generalization of Popa's free independence result for subalgebras of ultraproduct ${\rm II_1}$ factors [Po95] to the framework of ultraproduct von Neumann algebras $(M^ω, φ^ω)$ where $(M, φ)$ is a $σ$-finite von Neumann algebra endowed with a faithful normal state satisfying $(M^φ)' \cap M = \mathbf{C} 1$. More precisely, we show that whenever $P_1, P_2 \subset M^ω$ are von Neumann subalgebras with separable predual that are globally invariant under the modular automorphism group $(σ_t^{φ^ω})$, there exists a unitary $v \in \mathcal U((M^ω)^{φ^ω})$ such that …
Let $A,B\subset M$ be inclusions of $σ$-finite von Neumann algebras such that $A$ and $B$ are images of faithful normal conditional expectations. In this article, we investigate Popa's intertwining condition $A\preceq_MB$ using their modular actions. In the main theorem, we prove that if $A\preceq_MB$ holds, then an intertwining element for $A\preceq_MB$ also intertwines some modular flows of $A$ and $B$. As a result, we deduce a new characterization of $A\preceq_MB$ in terms of their continuous cores. Using this new characterization, we prove the first W$^*$-superrigidity type result for grou…
We prove that weak amenability of a locally compact group imposes a strong condition on its amenable closed normal subgroups. This extends non weak amenability results of Haagerup (1988) and Ozawa--Popa (2010). A von Neumann algebra analogue is also obtained.
Using an approach emerging from the theory of closable derivations on von Neumann algebras, we exhibit a class of groups CR satisfying the following property: given any groups G_1, G_2 in CR, then any free, ergodic, measure preserving action on a probability space G_1 x G_2 on X gives rise to a von Neumann algebra with unique group measure space Cartan subalgebra. Pairing this result with Popa's Orbit Equivalence Superrigidity Theorem we obtain new examples of W*-superrigid actions.
We define a "tracial" analog of the Rokhlin property for actions of second countable compact groups on infinite dimensional simple separable unital C*-algebras. We prove that fixed point algebras under such actions (and, in the appropriate cases, crossed products by such actions) preserve simplicity, Property (SP), tracial rank zero, tracial rank at most one, the Popa property, tracial Jiang-Su stability, Jiang-Su stability when the algebra is nuclear, infiniteness, and pure infiniteness. We also show that the radius of comparison of the fixed point algebra is no larger than that of the origin…
In this article we study property (T) groups arising from Rips construction in geometric group theory in the spirit of \cite{CDK19} and certain inductive limit groups from this class. Using interplay between Popa's deformation/rigidity and methods in geometric group theory we are able to extend the class of groups considered in \cite{CDK19} that remembers semidirect product features while passing to the group von Neumann algebras. Combining these results with the method developed in \cite{CDHK20} we are able to produce more examples of property (T) group factors with trivial fundamental group.…
