On ergodic theorems for free group actions on noncommutative spaces

We extend in a noncommutative setting the individual ergodic theorem of Nevo and Stein concerning measure preserving actions of free groups and averages on spheres s_2n of even radius. Here we study state preserving actions of free groups on a von Neumann algebra A and the behaviour of (s_2n(x)) for x in noncommutative spaces L^p(A). For the Cesàro means this problem was solved by Walker. Our approach is based on ideas of Bufetov. We prove a noncommutative version of Rota ``Alternierende Verfahren' theorem. To this end, we introduce specific dilations of the powers of some noncommutative Markov operators.     

The Shannon-McMillan theorem for ergodic quantum lattice systems

We formulate and prove a quantum Shannon-McMillan theorem. The theorem demonstrates the significance of the von Neumann entropy for translation invariant ergodic quantum spin systems on -lattices: the entropy gives the logarithm of the essential number of eigenvectors of the system on large boxes. The one-dimensional case covers quantum information sources and is basic for coding theorems.     

Amenability and uniqueness

The main result of this paper is a characterization of properly infinite injective von Neumann algebras and of nuclear C^∗$C^{\ast }$-algebras by using a uniqueness theorem, based on generalizations of Voiculescu’s famous Weyl–von Neumann theorem.     

Toeplitz operators with noncommuting symbols

LetM be a von Neumann algebra with a faithful normal tracial state and letH be a finite maximal subdiagonal subalgebra ofM. LetH ² be the closure ofH in the noncommutative Lebesgue spaceL ²(M). We consider Toeplitz operators onH ² whose symbol belong toM, and find that they possess several of the properties of Toeplitz operators onH ²( ) with symbol fromL ( ), including norm estimates, a Hartman-Wintner spectral inclusion theorem, and a characterisation of the weak^* continuous linear functionals on the space of Toeplitz operators.     

Type III factors with unique Cartan decomposition

We prove that for any free ergodic nonsingular nonamenable action Γ?(X,μ)$\Gamma ?(X,\mu )$ of all Γ   in a large class of groups including all hyperbolic groups, the associated group measure space von Neumann algebra L^∞(X)?Γ${\mathrm{L}}^{\infty }(X)?\Gamma$ has L^∞(X)${\mathrm{L}}^{\infty }(X)$ as its unique Cartan subalgebra, up to unitary conjugacy. This generalizes the probability measure preserving case that was established in Popa and Vaes (in press) [38]. We also prove primeness and indecomposability results for such crossed products, for the corresponding orbit equivalence relations and for arbitrary amalgamated free products _M1?BM2$M_1{?}_B{M}_2$ over a subalgebra B of type I.     

On von Neumann regular f-algebras

It is shown that for a large class of f-algebras, von Neumann regularity and -lateral completeness are equivalent notions.     

Spectral flow and Dixmier traces

We obtain general theorems which enable the calculation of the Dixmier trace in terms of the asymptotics of the zeta function and of the heat operator in a general semi-finite von Neumann algebra. Our results have several applications. We deduce a formula for the Chern character of an odd -summable Breuer-Fredholm module in terms of a Hochschild 1-cycle. We explain how to derive a Wodzicki residue for pseudo-differential operators along the orbits of an ergodic action on a compact space X. Finally, we give a short proof of an index theorem of Lesch for generalised Toeplitz operators.     

On the second differentiability of convex surfaces

Properties of pointwise second differentiability of real-valued convex functions in ⁿ are studied. Some proofs of the Busemann-Feller-Aleksandrov theorem are reviewed and a new proof of this theorem is presented.     

Degree two ergodic theorem for divergence-free stationary random fields

We prove the ergodic theorem for surface integrals of divergence-free stationary random fields of ℝ³. Mean convergence in spaces takes place as soon as the field is -integrable. The condition of integrability for the pointwise convergence is expressed by a Lorentz norm. This theorem is an ergodic theorem for cocycles of degree 2, analogous to the ergodic theorem for cocycles of degree 1 proved in [1].     

An isomorphic characterization of L-spaces

We show that a sequentially (τ)-complete topological vector lattice X_τ is isomorphic to some L¹(μ), if and only if the positive cone can be written as X₊ = ₊B for some convex, (τ)-bounded, and (τ)-closed set B X₊ {0}. The same result holds under weaker hypotheses, namely the Riesz decomposition property for X (not assumed to be a vector lattice) and the monotonic σ-completeness (monotonic Cauchy sequences converge). The isometric part of the main result implies the well-known representation theorem of Kakutani for (AL)-spaces. As an application we show that on a normed space Y of infinite dimension, the “ball-generated” ordering induced by the cone Y₊ = ₊ (for u >) cannot have the Riesz decomposition property. A second application deals with a pointwise ordering on a space of multivariate polynomials.     

Joint torsion of Toeplitz operators with H∞ symbols

We give a new² index theorem for the basic example of Toeplitz operators on the circle. The joint torsion, a non zero complex valued analytic index, of a pair of Fredholm Toeplitz operatorsT andT withH symbols is computed by residues in the disk, and is determined by a monodromy integral which specifies the isomorphism class of a flat line bundle on the circle. When the symbols and are rational a product of joint torsions identifies the isomorphism class of the bundle inH ¹ (S ¹,C ^*), and the identification extends by rational approximation to the case of smooth symbols defined on the circle.Partially supported by National Science Foundation grants to both authors.     

Strong clustering in type III entropic K-systems

It is shown that Complete Memory Loss (CML) formulated in terms of the Quantum Dynamical Entropy of Connes, Narnhofer and Thirring implies Strong Clustering for some typeIII von Neumann algebras including infinite quantum systems with quasi-free states. This generalizes analogous conclusions on Abelian and typeII ₁ von Neumann algebras. The result is based on the fact that optimal decompositions that obtain the so-called Entropy of a Subalgebra are under control in the two-dimensional case.     

Representation of a class of locally convex (M)-lattices

We prove a representation theorem for Hausdorff locally convex (M)-lattices which are Dedekind σ-complete, and whose topologies are order σ-continuous and monotonically complete. These turn out to be the weighted spaces c₀(T, H), defined in the paper for T ≠ and H ^T₊. We also characterize the dual of c₀(T, H), as the space l¹ (T, H) defined in the last section. The known representation (on c₀(T)) of Banach (M)-lattices with order continuous norm follows as a particular case. We obtain these results by first proving a new general isomorphism theorem, which seems to be of independent interest. Our notion of “monotonic topological completeness” is weaker than the usual completeness and seems to be very convenient in the framework of topological ordered vector spaces.     

On subspaces of non-commutative Lp-spaces

We study some structural aspects of the subspaces of the non-commutative (Haagerup) L_p-spaces associated with a general (non-necessarily semi-finite) von Neumann algebra . If a subspace X of contains uniformly the spaces ?_pⁿ, n?1, it contains an almost isometric, almost 1-complemented copy of ?_p. If X contains uniformly the finite dimensional Schatten classes S_pⁿ, it contains their ?_p-direct sum too. We obtain a version of the classical Kadec-Pe?czyński dichotomy theorem for L_p-spaces, p?2. We also give operator space versions of these results. The proofs are based on previous structural results on the ultrapowers of , together with a careful analysis of the elements of an ultrapower which are disjoint from the subspace . These techniques permit to recover a recent result of N. Randrianantoanina concerning a subsequence splitting lemma for the general non-commutative L_p spaces. Various notions of p-equiintegrability are studied (one of which is equivalent to Randrianantoanina's one) and some results obtained by Haagerup, Rosenthal and Sukochev for L_p-spaces based on finite von Neumann algebras concerning subspaces of containing ?_p are extended to the general case.     

Multipliers in Hardy-Sobolev Spaces

For 1 < p < ∞ and 0 ≤ n − sp < 1, we give characterizations of the space of pointwise multipliers of the holomorphic Hardy-Sobolev spaces H_s^p on the unit ball B of As an application of these results we obtain a corona theorem for these spaces.     

Individual ergodic theorems in noncommutative Orlicz spaces

For a noncommutative Orlicz space associated with a semifinite von Neumann algebra, a faithful normal semifinite trace and an Orlicz function satisfying \((\delta _2,\Delta _2)\)-condition, an individual ergodic theorem is proved.     

Maximal ergodic theorems for some group actions

We prove maximal ergodic inequalities for a sequence of operators and for their averages in the noncommutative Lp-space. We also obtain the corresponding individual ergodic theorems. Applying these results to actions of a free group on a von Neumann algebra, we get noncommutative analogues of maximal ergodic inequalities and pointwise ergodic theorems of Nevo-Stein.     

Strong rigidity of II1 factors arising from malleable actions of w-rigid groups, I

We consider crossed product II₁ factors , with G discrete ICC groups that contain infinite normal subgroups with the relative property (T) and σ trace preserving actions of G on finite von Neumann algebras N that are “malleable” and mixing. Examples are the actions of G by Bernoulli shifts (classical and non-classical) and by Bogoliubov shifts. We prove a rigidity result for isomorphisms of such factors, showing the uniqueness, up to unitary conjugacy, of the position of the group von Neumann algebra L(G) inside M. We use this result to calculate the fundamental group of M, , in terms of the weights of the shift σ, for and other special arithmetic groups. We deduce that for any subgroup S⊂ℝ₊^* there exist II₁ factors M (separable if S is countable or S=ℝ₊^*) with . This brings new light to a long standing open problem of Murray and von Neumann.     

Bimodules in crossed products of von Neumann algebras

In this paper, we study bimodules over a von Neumann algebra M   in the context of an inclusion M⊆M_?αG$M\subseteq M{?}_{\alpha }G$, where G is a discrete group acting on a factor M by outer ?-automorphisms. We characterize the M  -bimodules X⊆M_?αG$X\subseteq M{?}_{\alpha }G$ that are closed in the Bures topology in terms of the subsets of G  . We show that this characterization also holds for w^?$w^{?}$-closed bimodules when G has the approximation property (AP  ), a class of groups that includes all amenable and weakly amenable ones. As an application, we prove a version of Mercer's extension theorem for certain w^?$w^{?}$-continuous surjective isometric maps on X.     

Convergence of Averages in the Ergodic Theorem for Groups ?d

Some estimates of the rates of convergence in the ergodic theorem for actions of groups ^d are given. Moreover, a martingale-ergodic theorem for ^d is proved. This theorem may be considered as an ergodic theorem in which the exact initial coordinates of points in the phase space are gradually forgotten. Bibliography: 9 titles.