Sofic equivalence relations

We introduce the notion of sofic measurable equivalence relations. Using them we prove that Connes' Embedding Conjecture as well as the Measurable Determinant Conjecture of Lück, Sauer and Wegner hold for treeable equivalence relations.     

Homological and finiteness properties of picture groups

Picture groups are a class of groups introduced by Guba and Sapir. Known examples include Thompson's groups , , and .

In this paper, a large class of picture groups is proved to be of type . A Morse-theoretic argument shows that, for a given picture group, the rational homology vanishes in almost all dimensions.

     

Generalized Group Algebras of Locally Compact Groups

This article studies the homological properties of generalized group algebra L ¹(G, A) of a locally compact group G over a Banach algebra A with an identity of norm 1. It is shown that if L ¹(G, A) is right continuous then G is finite and A is right continuous. It is also shown that L ¹(G, A) is right self-injective if and only if G is finite and A is right self-injective.     

On residual finiteness of direct products of algebraic systems

It is well known that if two algebraic structures A and B are residually finite then so is their direct product. Here we discuss the converse of this statement. It is of course true if A and B contain idempotents, which covers the case of groups, rings, etc. We prove that the converse also holds for semigroups even though they need not have idempotents. We also exhibit three examples which show that the converse does not hold in general.      

The similarity problem for Fourier algebras and corepresentations of group von Neumann algebras

Let G be a locally compact group, and let A(G) and VN(G) be its Fourier algebra and group von Neumann algebra, respectively. In this paper we consider the similarity problem for A(G): Is every bounded representation of A(G) on a Hilbert space H similar to a *-representation? We show that the similarity problem for A(G) has a negative answer if and only if there is a bounded representation of A(G) which is not completely bounded. For groups with small invariant neighborhoods (i.e. SIN groups) we show that a representation π:A(G)→B(H) is similar to a *-representation if and only if it is completely bounded. This, in particular, implies that corepresentations of VN(G) associated to non-degenerate completely bounded representations of A(G) are similar to unitary corepresentations. We also show that if G is a SIN, maximally almost periodic, or totally disconnected group, then a representation of A(G) is a *-representation if and only if it is a complete contraction. These results partially answer questions posed in Effros and Ruan (2003) [7] and Spronk (2002) [25].     

On finiteness of the set of intermediate subfactors

For type factors with , we show that the sets and are finite. Moreover, , the set of intermediate subfactors, is finite if and only if it is equal to . If is an irreducible subfactor, then we recover a result of Y. Watatani.

     

A new setting for constructing von Neumann regular rings

A classical and clever construction by George Bergman in the mid 1970s was of a unit-regular algebra Q (over an arbitrary field F) that contains a regular subalgebra R which is not unit-regular. The algebra Q was constructed inside a full linear ring of an uncountable-dimensional vector space over F. Here we give a much simpler construction of Bergman’s R and Q inside an algebra B of countably-infinite matrices. The algebra B does not seem to have been noticed before, possibly because it is not obviously a ring. It also suggests possibilities for answering the difficult open problem of constructing a non-separative regular ring.     

A note on p-supersolvable groups

The notion of Hankel operators associated with analytic crossed products were introduced and researched in [2]. In this paper, we study the adjoint of Hankel operators and give necessary and sufficient condition that the adjoint of a Hankel operator is again a Hankel operator. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.     

The weak closure of the set of left translation operators

It is known that for an amenable locally compact group , is not in the weak closure of of . In this paper, it is proved that the converse of this is true. In other words, if is a non-amenable locally compact group, then is in the weak closure of . This answers several questions of Ülger. Applications to the algebra and the dual of the reduced group -algebra are obtained.

     

Periodic groups whose simple modules have finite central endomorphism dimension

Theorem. If is an uncountable field and is a periodic group with no elements of order the characteristic of and if all simple modules have finite central endomorphism dimension, then has an abelian subgroup of finite index.

     

素环上强保持2-Jordan乘积的映射

对于给定的正整数k≥1,环R上的元x,y的k-Jordan乘积定义为{x,y}_k={{x,y}_(k-1),y}_1,其中{x,y}_0=x,{x,y}_1=xy+yx.假设R是包含有单位元与一非平凡幂等元的素环.本文证明了R上的满射f满足{f(x),f(y)}2={x,y}_2对所有x,y∈R成立当且仅当存在λ∈l(R的可扩展中心)且λ~3=1,使得下列之一成立:(1)若R的特征不为2,则f(x)=λx对所有x∈R成立;(2)若R的特征为2,则f(x)=λx+μ(x)对所有x∈R成立,其中μ:R→l是一个映射.作为应用,得到了因子von Neumann代数上保持上述性质映射的结构.     

L 2-Cohomology for Von Neumann Algebras

We study L ²-Betti numbers for von Neumann algebras, as defined by D. Shlyakhtenko and A. Connes in [CoS]. We give a definition of L ²-cohomology and show how the study of the first L ²-Betti number can be related to the study of derivations with values in a bi-module of affiliated operators. We show several results about the possibility of extending derivations from sub-algebras and about uniqueness of such extensions. In particular, we show that the first L ²-Betti number of a tracial von Neumann algebra coincides with the corresponding number for an arbitrary weakly dense sub-C*-algebra. Along the way, we prove some results about the dimension function of modules over rings of affiliated operators which are of independent interest. Received: March 2006 Revision: October 2006 Accepted: October 2006     

Hyperbolic unit groups and quaternion algebras

We classify the quadratic extensions and the finite groups G for which the group ring [G] of G over the ring of integers of K has the property that the group of units of augmentation 1 is hyperbolic. We also construct units in the ℤ-order of the quaternion algebra , when it is a division algebra.     

Strong skew commutativity preserving maps on rings with involution

Let R be a unital *-ring with the unit I.Assume that R contains a symmetric idempotent P which satisfies ARP = 0 implies A = 0 and AR(I-P) = 0 implies A = 0.In this paper,it is shown that a surjective map Φ:R→R is strong skew commutativity preserving(that is,satisfiesΦ(A)Φ(B)-Φ(B)Φ(A)~w= AB-BA~w for all A,B∈R) if and only if there exist a map f:R→Z_s(R)and an element Z∈Z_s(R) with Z~2=I such that Φ(A)=ZA +f(A) for all A∈R,where Z_s(R) is the symmetric center of R.As applications,the strong skew commutativity preserving maps on unital prime *-rings and von Neumann algebras with no central summands of type I_1 are characterized.     

主左理想由若干个幂等元生成的环

环Ｒ称为左ＰＩ－环，是指Ｒ的每个主左理想由有限个幂等元生成．本文的主要目的是研究左ＰＩ－环的ｖｏｎ Ｎｅｕｍａｎｎ正则性，证明了如下主要结果：（１）环Ｒ是Ａｒｔｉｎ半单的当且仅当Ｒ是正交有限的左ＰＩ－环；（２）环Ｒ是强正则的当且仅当Ｒ是左ＰＩ－环，且对于Ｒ的每个素理想Ｐ，Ｒ／Ｐ是除环；（３）环Ｒ是正则的且Ｒ的每个左本原商环是Ａｒｔｉｎ的当且仅当Ｒ是左ＰＩ－环且Ｒ的每个左本原商环是Ａｒｔｉｎ的；（４）环Ｒ是左自内射正则环且Ｓｏｃ（_ＲＲ）≠０当且仅当Ｒ是左ＰＩ－环且它包含内射极大左理想；（５）环Ｒ是ＭＥＬＴ正则环当且仅当Ｒ是ＭＥＬＴ左ＰＩ－环．     

von Neumann regular modules

In this paper, we introduce von Neumann regular modules and give many characterizations of von Neumann regular modules. Further, we investigate the relations between von Neumann regular modules and other classical modules. Finally, we characterize Noetherian von Neumann regular modules.     

Nonlinear Strong Commutativity Preserving Maps on Prime Rings

Let 𝒜 be a unital prime ring containing a nontrivial idempotent P. Assume that Φ: 𝒜 → 𝒜 is a nonlinear surjective map. It is shown that Φ preserves strong commutativity if and only if Φ has the form Φ(A) = αA + f(A) for all A ∈ 𝒜, where α ∈ {1, ?1} and f is a map from 𝒜 into 𝒵(𝒜). As an application, a characterization of nonlinear surjective strong commutativity preserving maps on factor von Neumann algebras is obtained.