An extension of Haagerup's reduction theorem with applications to subdiagonal subalgebras of general von Neumann algebras

Abstract

We revisit Haagerup's enigmatic reduction theorem \cite[Theorems 2.1 \& 3.1]{HJX} showing how that theorem may be extended to general von Neumann algebras $\M$ equipped with an arbitrary faithful normal semifinite weight in a manner which faithfully captures the essence of the original. In contrast to the proposal in \cite[Remark 2.8]{HJX}, we show how in the non-$\sigma$-finite case the enlargement $\R=\M\rtimes\mathbb{Q}_D$ of $\M$ may be approximated by an increasing \emph{sequence} of \emph{expected} semifinite subalgebras. Using this revised version of the reduction theorem we may then all the applications of this theorem to $H^p$-spaces from the $\sigma$-finite case to general von Neumann algebras. Inspired by the theory of topologically ordered groups we then propose the even more general concept of approximately subdiagonal subalgebras which proves to be general enough to contain all group theoretic examples. This then forms the context for much of the study of Fredholm Toeplitz operators in the closing sections.