Fullness and Connes' $\boldsymbolτ$ invariant of type III tensor product factors

Abstract: We show that the tensor product $M \mathbin{\overline{\otimes}} N$ of any two full factors $M$ and $N$ (possibly of type ${\rm III}$) is full and we compute Connes' invariant $\tau(M \mathbin{\overline{\otimes}} N)$ in terms of $\tau(M)$ and $\tau(N)$. The key novelty is an enhanced spectral gap property for full factors of type ${\rm III}$. Moreover, for full factors of type ${\rm III}$ with almost periodic states, we prove an optimal spectral gap property. As an application of our main result, we also show that for any full factor $M$ and any non-type ${\rm I}$ amenable factor $P$, the tensor product factor $M \mathbin{\overline{\otimes}} P$ has a unique McDuff decomposition, up to stable unitary conjugacy.