Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
For a division ring $D$ , denote by
${{\mathcal{M}}_{D}}$ the
$D$ -ring obtained as the completion of the direct limit
$\underset{\to n}{\mathop \lim }\,{{M}_{{{2}^{n}}}}(D)$ with respect to themetric induced by its unique rank function. We prove that, for any ultramatricial
$D$ -ring
$B$ and any non-discrete extremal pseudo-rank function
$N$ on
$B$ , there is an isomorphism of
$D$ -rings
$\overline{B}\,\cong \,{{\mathcal{M}}_{D}}$ , where
$\overline{B}$ stands for the completion of
$B$ with respect to the pseudo-metric induced by
$N$ . This generalizes a result of von Neumann. We also show a corresponding uniqueness result for
$*$ -algebras over fields
$\text{F}$ with positive definite involution, where the algebra
${{\mathcal{M}}_{\text{F}}}$ is endowed with its natural involution coming from the
$*$ -transpose involution on each of the factors
${{M}_{{{2}^{n}}}}\,(F)$ .