Unitary operators in the orthogonal complement of a type I von Neumann subalgebra in a type \(\mathrm{II}_1\) factor (Q402992)

Let \((N,\tau)\) be a finite von Neumann algebra with a faithful normal normalized trace \(\tau\), and let \(A\) be a von Neumann subalgebra of \(N\). The authors show that the equality \[ N\ominus A=\overline{\text{span}\{u:u\,\,\text{u\,\, is\,\,unitary\,\,in}\,\,N\ominus A\}^{\text{SOT}}} \] holds if \(N\) is a type \(\text{ II}_1\) factor and \(A\) is a type I von Neumann algebra.