arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Stefaan Vaes.
We provide a family of group measure space II_1 factors for which all finite index subfactors can be explicitly listed. In particular, the set of all indices of irreducible subfactors can be computed. Concrete examples show that this index set can be any set of natural numbers that is closed under taking divisors.
We prove that for a fairly large family of HNN extensions Γ, the group measure space II_1 factor L^\infty(X) \rtimes Γgiven by an arbitrary free ergodic probability measure preserving action of Γ, has a unique group measure space Cartan subalgebra up to unitary conjugacy. We deduce from this new examples of W^*-superrigid group actions, i.e. where the II_1 factor L^\infty(X) \rtimes Γentirely remembers the group action that it was constructed from.
We prove a "unique crossed product decomposition" result for group measure space II_1 factors arising from arbitrary free ergodic probability measure preserving (p.m.p.) actions of groups Γin a fairly large family G, which contains all free products of a Kazhdan group and a non-trivial group, as well as certain amalgamated free products over an amenable subgroup. We deduce that if T_n denotes the group of upper triangular matrices in PSL(n,Z), then any free, mixing p.m.p. action of the amalgamated free product of PSL(n,Z) with itself over T_n, is W*-superrigid, i.e. any isomorphism between L^\infty(X) \rtimes Γand an arbitrary group measure space factor L^\infty(Y) \rtimes Λ, comes from a conjugacy of the actions. We also prove that for many groups Γin the family G, the Bernoulli actions of Γare W*-superrigid.
We construct inner amenable groups G with infinite conjugacy classes and such that the associated II_1 factor does not have property Gamma of Murray and von Neumann. This solves a problem posed by Effros in 1975.
We prove that given any compact group G, there exists a minimal action of G on a II_1 factor M such that the bimodule category of the fixed-point II_1 factor M^G is naturally equivalent with the representation category of G. In particular, all subfactors of M^G with finite Jones index can be described explicitly.
We identify the Poisson boundary of the dual of the universal compact quantum group A_u(F) with a measurable field of ITPFI factors.
We prove cocycle and orbit equivalence superrigidity for lattices in SL(n,R) acting linearly on R^n, as well as acting projectively on certain flag manifolds, including the real projective space. The proof combines operator algebraic techniques with the property (T) in the sense of Zimmer for the action of SL(n,Z) on R^n, n \geq 4. We also show that the restriction of the associated orbit equivalence relation to a subset of finite Lebesgue measure, provides a II_1 equivalence relation with property (T) and yet fundamental group equal to R_+.
We show that given any subgroup F of R_+ which is either countable or belongs to a certain "large" class of uncountable subgroups, there exist continuously many free ergodic probability measure preserving actions σ_i of the free group with infinitely many generators such that their associated group measure space II_1 factors M_i and orbit equivalence relations R_i have fundamental group equal to F and with M_i (respectively R_i) stably non-isomorphic. Moreover, these actions can be taken so that R_i has no outer automorphisms and any automorphism of M_i is unitary conjugate to an automorphism that acts trivially on $L^\infty(X_i) \subset M_i$.
We study II_1 factors M and N associated with good generalized Bernoulli actions of groups having an infinite almost normal subgroup with the relative property (T). We prove the following rigidity result: every finite index M-N-bimodule (in particular, every isomorphism between M and N) is described by a commensurability of the groups involved and a commensurability of their actions. The fusion algebra of finite index M-M-bimodules is identified with an extended Hecke fusion algebra, providing the first explicit computations of the fusion algebra of a II_1 factor. We obtain in particular explicit examples of II_1 factors with trivial fusion algebra, i.e. only having trivial finite index subfactors.
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.
We call a subfactor trivial if it is isomorphic with the obvious inclusion of N into matrices over N. We prove the existence of type II_1 factors M without non-trivial finite index subfactors. Equivalently, every M-M-bimodule with finite coupling constant, both as a left and as a right M-module, is a multiple of L^2(M). Our results rely on the recent work of Ioana, Peterson and Popa, who proved the existence of type II_1 factors without outer automorphisms.
We study the C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras associated with the universal discrete quantum groups. They give rise to full prime factors and simple exact C*-algebras. The main tool in our work is the study of an amenable boundary action, yielding the Akemann-Ostrand property. Finally, this boundary can be identified with the Martin or the Poisson boundary of a quantum random walk.
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.
We study equivalence relations and II_1 factors associated with (quotients of) generalized Bernoulli actions of Kazhdan groups. Specific families of these actions are entirely classified up to isomorphism of II_1 factors. This yields explicit computations of outer automorphism and fundamental groups. In particular, every finitely presented group is concretely realized as the outer automorphism group of a continuous family of non stably isomorphic II_1 factors.
The Poisson and Martin boundaries for invariant random walks on the dual of the orthogonal quantum groups A_o(F), are identified with higher dimensional Podles spheres that we describe in terms of generators and relations. This provides the first such identification for random walks on non-amenable discrete quantum groups.
We construct new examples of ergodic coactions of compact quantum groups, in which the multiplicity of an irreducible corepresentation can be strictly larger than the dimension of the latter. These examples are obtained using a bijective correspondence between certain ergodic coactions on C*-algebras and unitary fiber functors on the representation category of a compact quantum group. We classify these unitary fiber functors on the universal orthogonal and unitary quantum groups. The associated C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras can be defined by generators and relations, but are not yet well understood.
In the framework of locally compact quantum groups, we provide an induction procedure for unitary corepresentations as well as coactions on C*-algebras. We prove imprimitivity theorems that unify the existing theorems for actions and coactions of groups. We essentially use von Neumann algebraic techniques.
This is a survey paper on the work of D. Shlyakhtenko on free Araki-Woods factors. The paper was written (in French) on the occasion of the Bourbaki seminar. Our original contribution consists in computing the tau invariant for arbitrary free Araki-Woods factors.