Amalgamated free product type III factors with at most one Cartan subalgebra (1212.4994v2)

Abstract: We investigate Cartan subalgebras in nontracial amalgamated free product von Neumann algebras $M_1 \ast_B M_2$ over an amenable von Neumann subalgebra $B$. First, we settle the problem of the absence of Cartan subalgebra in arbitrary free product von Neumann algebras. Namely, we show that any nonamenable free product von Neumann algebra $(M_1, \varphi_1) \ast (M_2, \varphi_2)$ with respect to faithful normal states has no Cartan subalgebra. This generalizes the tracial case that was established in \cite{Io12a}. Next, we prove that any countable nonsingular ergodic equivalence relation $\mathcal R$ defined on a standard measure space and which splits as the free product $\mathcal R = \mathcal R_1 \ast \mathcal R_2$ of recurrent subequivalence relations gives rise to a nonamenable factor $\rL(\mathcal R)$ with a unique Cartan subalgebra, up to unitary conjugacy. Finally, we prove unique Cartan decomposition for a class of group measure space factors $\rL^\infty(X) \rtimes \Gamma$ arising from nonsingular free ergodic actions $\Gamma \curvearrowright (X, \mu)$ on standard measure spaces of amalgamated groups $\Gamma = \Gamma_1 \ast_{\Sigma} \Gamma_2$ over a finite subgroup $\Sigma$.