The notion of strong 1-boundedness for finite von Neumann algebras was introduced in [Jun07b]. This framework provided a free probabilistic approach to study rigidity properties and classification of finite von Neumann algebras. In this paper, we prove that tracial von Neumann algebras with a finite Kazhdan set are strongly 1-bounded. This includes all property (T) von Neumann algebras with finite-dimensional center and group von Neumann algebras of property (T) groups. This result generalizes all the previous results in this direction due to Voiculescu, Ge, Ge-Shen, Connes-Shlyakhtenko, Jung-Shlyakhtenko, Jung and Shlyakhtenko. Our proofs are based on analysis of covering estimates of microstate spaces using an iteration technique in the spirit of Jung.

Given a Fell bundle $\mathcal {B}=\{B_t\}_{t\in G}$ over a locally compact group G and a closed subgroup $H\subset G,$ we construct quotients $C^{*}_{H\uparrow \mathcal {B}}(\mathcal {B})$ and $C^{*}_{H\uparrow G}(\mathcal {B})$ of the full cross-sectional C*-algebra $C^{*}(\mathcal {B})$ analogous to Exel–Ng’s reduced algebras $C^{*}_{\mathop {\mathrm {r}}}(\mathcal {B})\equiv C^{*}_{\{e\}\uparrow \mathcal {B}}(\mathcal {B})$ and $C^{*}_R(\mathcal {B})\equiv C^{*}_{\{e\}\uparrow G}(\mathcal {B}).$ An absorption principle, similar to Fell’s one, is used to give conditions on $\mathcal {B}$ and H (e.g., G discrete and $\mathcal {B}$ saturated, or H normal) ensuring $C^{*}_{H\uparrow \mathcal {B}}(\mathcal {B})=C^{*}_{H\uparrow G}(\mathcal {B}).$ The tools developed here enable us to show that if the normalizer of H is open in G and $\mathcal {B}_H:=\{B_t\}_{t\in H}$ is the reduction of $\mathcal {B}$ to $H,$ then $C^{*}(\mathcal {B}_H)=C^{*}_{\mathop {\mathrm {r}}}(\mathcal {B}_H)$ if and only if $C^{*}_{H\uparrow \mathcal {B}}(\mathcal {B})=C^{*}_{\mathop {\mathrm {r}}}(\mathcal {B});$ the last identification being implied by $C^{*}(\mathcal {B})=C^{*}_{\mathop {\mathrm {r}}}(\mathcal {B}).$ We also prove that if G is inner amenable and $C^{*}_{\mathop {\mathrm {r}}}(\mathcal {B})\otimes _{\max } C^{*}_{\mathop {\mathrm {r}}}(G)=C^{*}_{\mathop {\mathrm { r}}}(\mathcal {B})\otimes C^{*}_{\mathop {\mathrm {r}}}(G),$ then $C^{*}(\mathcal {B})=C^{*}_{\mathop {\mathrm {r}}}(\mathcal {B}).$

In Caspers et al. (Can. J. Math. 75[6] [2022], 1–18), transference results between multilinear Fourier and Schur multipliers on noncommutative $L_p$-spaces were shown for unimodular groups. We propose a suitable extension of the definition of multilinear Fourier multipliers for non-unimodular groups and show that the aforementioned transference results also hold in this more general setting.

The loop space of a string manifold supports an infinite-dimensional Fock space bundle, which is an analog of the spinor bundle on a spin manifold. This spinor bundle on loop space appears in the description of two-dimensional sigma models as the bundle of states over the configuration space of the superstring. We construct a product on this bundle that covers the fusion of loops, i.e. the merging of two loops along a common segment. For this purpose, we exhibit it as a bundle of bimodules over a certain von Neumann algebra bundle, and realize our product fibrewise using the Connes fusion of von Neumann bimodules. Our main technique is to establish novel relations between string structures, loop fusion, and the Connes fusion of Fock spaces. The fusion product on the spinor bundle on loop space was proposed by Stolz and Teichner as part of a programme to explore the relation between generalized cohomology theories, functorial field theories, and index theory. It is related to the pair of pants worldsheet of the superstring, to the extension of the corresponding smooth functorial field theory down to the point, and to a higher-categorical bundle on the underlying string manifold, the stringor bundle.

We apply Takesaki’s and Connes’s ideas on structure analysis for type III factors to the study of links (a short term of Markov kernels) appearing in asymptotic representation theory.

We show that for every countable group, any sequence of approximate homomorphisms with values in permutations can be realized as the restriction of a sofic approximation of an orbit equivalence relation. Moreover, this orbit equivalence relation is uniquely determined by the invariant random subgroup of the approximate homomorphisms. We record applications of this result to recover various known stability and conjugacy characterizations for almost homomorphisms of amenable groups.

Let $G= N\rtimes H$ be a locally compact group which is a semi-direct product of a closed normal subgroup N and a closed subgroup H. The Bohr compactification ${\rm Bohr}(G)$ and the profinite completion ${\rm Prof}(G)$ of G are, respectively, isomorphic to semi-direct products $Q_1 \rtimes {\rm Bohr}(H)$ and $Q_2 \rtimes {\rm Prof}(H)$ for appropriate quotients $Q_1$ of ${\rm Bohr}(N)$ and $Q_2$ of ${\rm Prof}(N).$ We give a precise description of $Q_1$ and $Q_2$ in terms of the action of H on appropriate subsets of the dual space of N. In the case where N is abelian, we have ${\rm Bohr}(G)\cong A \rtimes {\rm Bohr}(H)$ and ${\rm Prof}(G)\cong B \rtimes {\rm Prof}(H),$ where A (respectively B) is the dual group of the group of unitary characters of N with finite H-orbits (respectively with finite image). Necessary and sufficient conditions are deduced for G to be maximally almost periodic or residually finite. We apply the results to the case where $G= \Lambda\wr H$ is a wreath product of discrete groups; we show in particular that, in case H is infinite, ${\rm Bohr}(\Lambda\wr H)$ is isomorphic to ${\rm Bohr}(\Lambda^{\rm Ab}\wr H)$ and ${\rm Prof}(\Lambda\wr H)$ is isomorphic to ${\rm Prof}(\Lambda^{\rm Ab} \wr H),$ where $\Lambda^{\rm Ab}=\Lambda/ [\Lambda, \Lambda]$ is the abelianisation of $\Lambda.$ As examples, we compute ${\rm Bohr}(G)$ and ${\rm Prof}(G)$ when G is a lamplighter group and when G is the Heisenberg group over a unital commutative ring.

Given an irreducible lattice $\Gamma $ in the product of higher rank simple Lie groups, we prove a co-finiteness result for the $\Gamma $-invariant von Neumann subalgebras of the group von Neumann algebra $\mathcal {L}(\Gamma )$, and for the $\Gamma $-invariant unital $C^*$-subalgebras of the reduced group $C^*$-algebra $C^*_{\mathrm {red}}(\Gamma )$. We use these results to show that: (i) every $\Gamma $-invariant von Neumann subalgebra of $\mathcal {L}(\Gamma )$ is generated by a normal subgroup; and (ii) given a weakly mixing unitary representation $\pi $ of $\Gamma $, every $\Gamma $-equivariant conditional expectation on $C^*_\pi (\Gamma )$ is the canonical conditional expectation onto the $C^*$-subalgebra generated by a normal subgroup.

Let G be a locally compact unimodular group, and let $\phi $ be some function of n variables on G. To such a $\phi $, one can associate a multilinear Fourier multiplier, which acts on some n-fold product of the noncommutative $L_p$-spaces of the group von Neumann algebra. One may also define an associated Schur multiplier, which acts on an n-fold product of Schatten classes $S_p(L_2(G))$. We generalize well-known transference results from the linear case to the multilinear case. In particular, we show that the so-called “multiplicatively bounded $(p_1,\ldots ,p_n)$-norm” of a multilinear Schur multiplier is bounded above by the corresponding multiplicatively bounded norm of the Fourier multiplier, with equality whenever the group is amenable. Furthermore, we prove that the bilinear Hilbert transform is not bounded as a vector-valued map $L_{p_1}(\mathbb {R}, S_{p_1}) \times L_{p_2}(\mathbb {R}, S_{p_2}) \rightarrow L_{1}(\mathbb {R}, S_{1})$, whenever $p_1$ and $p_2$ are such that $\frac {1}{p_1} + \frac {1}{p_2} = 1$. A similar result holds for certain Calderón–Zygmund-type operators. This is in contrast to the nonvector-valued Euclidean case.

In 2016, I solved a problem of de la Harpe from 2006: Is there a nondiscrete C$^{\ast }$-simple group? However the solution was not fully satisfactory, as the C$^{\ast }$-simple groups provided (and their operator algebras) are very close to discrete groups. All previously known examples are of this form. In this article I give yet another construction of nondiscrete C$^{\ast }$-simple groups. The statement in the title then follows. This in particular gives the first examples of nonelementary C$^{\ast }$-simple groups (in Wesolek’s sense).

We give many examples of algebraic actions which are factors of Bernoulli shifts. These include certain harmonic models over left-orderable groups of large enough growth, as well as algebraic actions associated to certain lopsided elements in any left-orderable group. For many of our examples, the acting group is amenable so these actions are Bernoulli (and not just a factor of a Bernoulli), but there is no obvious Bernoulli partition.

We investigate how the fixed point algebra of a C*-dynamical system can differ from the underlying C*-algebra. For any exact group Γ and any infinite group Λ, we construct an outer action of Λ on the Cuntz algebra 𝒪2 whose fixed point algebra is almost equal to the reduced group C*-algebra ${\rm C}_{\rm r}^* (\Gamma)$. Moreover, we show that every infinite group admits outer actions on all Kirchberg algebras whose fixed point algebras fail the completely bounded approximation property.

We consider the notion of the graph product of actions of discrete groups $\{G_{v}\}$ on a $C^{\ast }$-algebra ${\mathcal{A}}$ and show that under suitable commutativity conditions the graph product action $\star _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}_{v}:\star _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}G_{v}\curvearrowright {\mathcal{A}}$ has the Haagerup property if each action $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}_{v}:G_{v}\curvearrowright {\mathcal{A}}$ possesses the Haagerup property. This generalizes the known results on graph products of groups with the Haagerup property. To accomplish this, we introduce the graph product of multipliers associated to the actions and show that the graph product of positive-definite multipliers is positive definite. These results have impacts on left-transformation groupoids and give an alternative proof of a known result for coarse embeddability. We also record a cohomological characterization of the Haagerup property for group actions.

In this paper, we revisit the theory of induced representations in the setting of locally compact quantum groups. In the case of induction from open quantum subgroups, we show that constructions of Kustermans and Vaes are equivalent to the classical, and much simpler, construction of Rieffel. We also prove in general setting the continuity of induction in the sense of Vaes with respect to weak containment.

For a closed subgroup of a locally compact group the Rieffel induction process gives rise to a C*-correspondence over the C*-algebra of the subgroup. We study the associated Cuntz–Pimsner algebra and show that, by varying the subgroup to be open, compact, or discrete, there are connections with the Exel–Pardo correspondence arising from a cocycle, and also with graph algebras.

The notion of positive-definite functions over locally compact quantum groups was recently introduced and studied by Daws and Salmi. Based on this work, we generalize various well-known results about positive-definite functions over groups to the quantum framework. Among these are theorems on “square roots” of positive-definite functions, comparison of various topologies, positive-definite measures and characterizations of amenability, and the separation property with respect to compact quantum subgroups.

We show that the assignment of the (left) completely bounded multiplier algebra $M_{cb}^{l}({{L}^{1}}(\mathbb{G}))$ to a locally compact quantum group $\mathbb{G}$ , and the assignment of the intrinsic group, form functors between appropriate categories. Morphisms of locally compact quantum groups can be described by Hopf $*$ -homomorphisms between universal ${{C}^{*}}$ -algebras, by bicharacters, or by special sorts of coactions. We show that the whole theory of completely bounded multipliers can be lifted to the universal ${{C}^{*}}$ -algebra level, and that the different pictures of both multipliers (reduced, universal, and as centralisers) and morphisms then interact in extremely natural ways. The intrinsic group of a quantum group can be realised as a class of multipliers, and so our techniques immediately apply. We also show how to think of the intrinsic group using the universal ${{C}^{*}}$ -algebra picture, and then, again, how the differing views on the intrinsic group interact naturally with morphisms. We show that the intrinsic group is the “maximal classical” quantum subgroup of a locally compact quantum group, that it is even closed in the strong Vaes sense, and that the intrinsic group functor is an adjoint to the inclusion functor from locally compact groups to quantum groups.

This paper is about the reduced group $C^{\ast }$-algebras of real reductive groups, and about Hilbert $C^{\ast }$-modules over these $C^{\ast }$-algebras. We shall do three things. First, we shall apply theorems from the tempered representation theory of reductive groups to determine the structure of the reduced $C^{\ast }$-algebra (the result has been known for some time, but it is difficult to assemble a full treatment from the existing literature). Second, we shall use the structure of the reduced $C^{\ast }$-algebra to determine the structure of the Hilbert $C^{\ast }$-bimodule that represents the functor of parabolic induction. Third, we shall prove that the parabolic induction bimodule admits a secondary inner product, using which we can define a functor of parabolic restriction in tempered representation theory. We shall prove in a sequel to this paper that parabolic restriction is adjoint, on both the left and the right, to parabolic induction in the context of tempered unitary Hilbert space representations.

In this short note we introduce a notion called quantum injectivity of locally compact quantum groups, and prove that it is equivalent to amenability of the dual. In particular, this provides a new characterization of amenability of locally compact groups.

We show that the multiplier algebra of the Fourier algebra on a locally compact group $G$ can be isometrically represented on a direct sum on non-commutative ${{L}^{p}}$ spaces associated with the right von Neumann algebra of $G$ . The resulting image is the idealiser of the image of the Fourier algebra. If these spaces are given their canonical operator space structure, then we get a completely isometric representation of the completely bounded multiplier algebra. We make a careful study of the noncommutative ${{L}^{p}}$ spaces we construct and show that they are completely isometric to those considered recently by Forrest, Lee, and Samei. We improve a result of theirs about module homomorphisms. We suggest a definition of a Figa-Talamanca–Herz algebra built out of these non-commutative ${{L}^{p}}$ spaces, say ${{A}_{p}}(\hat{G})$ . It is shown that ${{A}_{2}}(\hat{G})$ is isometric to ${{L}^{1}}(G)$ , generalising the abelian situation.