Strongly singular masas in type \(\text{II}_1\) factors (Q1601050)

Maximal abelian self-adjoint subalgebras (masas) of von Neumann algebras have been studied for many years [see \textit{D. Bures}, Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 110 (1971; Zbl 0214.14103)]. In this paper, a new type of masas, so-called strongly singular, is introduced and well investigated. Suppose \(M\) is a type II\(_1\) factor and \(\|x\|_2=(tr(x^*x))^{1/2}\) induced by the unique normalized trace. For a linear map \(\phi: M \rightarrow M\) we denote the operator norm of \(\phi\) by \(\|\cdot\|\) and put \(\|\phi\|_2=\sup\{\|\phi(x)\|_2\); \(\|x\|_2\leq 1\}\) and \(\|\phi\|_{\infty,2}=\sup\{\|\phi(x)\|_2\); \(\|x\|\leq 1\}\). For a masa \(A\) of \(M\), let \(\alpha(A)\) denote the supremum of all numbers \(\alpha\) for which \(\|E_{uAu^{*}}-E_A\|_{\infty,2}\geq\alpha\|u-E_A(u)\|_2\) is valid for all unitaries \(u\in M\). Here \(E_N:M\rightarrow N\) is the unique trace preserving the conditional expectation corresponding to the von Neumann subalgebra \(N\) of \(M\). A masa \(A\) is called strongly singular if \(\alpha(A)=1\). The authors show that masas arising from prime elements of Gromov's non-elementary ICC hyperbolic groups [cf. \textit{M. Gromov}, Essays in group theory, Publ. Math. Sci. Res. Inst. 8, 75-263 (1987; Zbl 0634.20015)] are strongly singular and satisfy \(\delta(A)=1\) where \(\delta(A)\) is Popa's invariant of \(A\) [cf. \textit{S. Popa}, J. Funct. Anal. 50, 151-166 (1983; Zbl 0526.46059)]. It is also shown that \(\delta(A)\geq \alpha(A)/\sqrt{5}\) for strongly singular masas.