Point spectrum of ergodic Abelian group actions and the corresponding group-measure factors (Q1093857)

In the crossed product of a von Neumann algebra by an action of a discrete abelian group, the sub von Neumann algebra generated by the canonical unitaries corresponding to the elements of the group is (as is easily seen) maximal abelian if, and only if, the action is ergodic. Assuming that this is the case, that the given von Neumann algebra is abelian and separable, and that the group acts freely, preserves a faithful normal state, and is countable (so that the crossed product is the hyperfinite factor of type \(II_ 1)\), the author shows that this maximal abelian subalgebra is regular (and therefore a Cartan subalgebra) if, and only if, the action has pure point spectrum. Connes, Feldman, and Weiss have shown that a Cartan subalgebra is unique up to conjugacy. By introducing a (variable) cocycle into the crossed product construction, in the case of the group \(\oplus^{\infty}_{n=1}\{0,1\}\) acting on the space \(\prod^{\infty}_{n=1}\{0,1\}\), the author exhibits in a simple way uncountably many Cartan subalgebras of the hyperfinite factor, no two of which are conjugate by inner automorphisms.