The Haagerup property for arbitrary von Neumann algebras

Abstract: We introduce a natural generalization of the Haagerup property of a finite von Neumann algebra to an arbitrary von Neumann algebra (with a separable predual) equipped with a normal, semi-finite, faithful weight and prove that this property does not depend on the choice of the weight. In particular this defines the Haagerup property as an intrinsic invariant of the von Neumann algebra. We also show that such a generalized Haagerup property is preserved under taking crossed products by actions of amenable locally compact groups. Our results are motivated by recent examples from the theory of discrete quantum groups, where the Haagerup property appears a priori only with respect to the Haar state.