Unique prime factorization and bicentralizer problem for a class of type III factors

Abstract: We show that whenever $m \geq 1$ and $M_1, \dots, M_m$ are nonamenable factors in a large class of von Neumann algebras that we call $\mathcal C_{(\text{AO})}$ and which contains all free Araki-Woods factors, the tensor product factor $M_1 \mathbin{\overline{\otimes}} \cdots \mathbin{\overline{\otimes}} M_m$ retains the integer $m$ and each factor $M_i$ up to stable isomorphism, after permutation of the indices. Our approach unifies the Unique Prime Factorization (UPF) results from [OP03, Is14] and moreover provides new UPF results in the case when $M_1, \dots, M_m$ are free Araki-Woods factors. In order to obtain the aforementioned UPF results, we show that Connes's bicentralizer problem has a positive solution for all type ${\rm III_1}$ factors in the class $\mathcal C_{(\text{AO})}$.