Triangle buildings and actions of type \(\text{III}_{1/q^ 2}\) (Q1923968)

The authors generalize the notion of doubly periodic apartments introduced by \textit{A. M. Mantero} and \textit{A. Zappa} in the reduced \(C^*\)-algebra of a triangle building [preprint, Genova (1993)]. They prove several useful facts about periodic apartments, and the periodic limit points they define on the boundary \(\Omega\) of a triangle building \(\Delta\). They show that periodic boundary points form a dense subset of the boundary of trivial measure with respect to this class. They also prove that the only boundary points stabilized by the action of \(\Gamma\) (often refered to as an \(\widetilde A_2\) group) are the periodic limit points. This enables them to deduce that the action of \(\Gamma\) on \(\Omega\) is also ergodic, thus establishing that the von Neumann algebra \(L^\infty (\Omega) \rtimes \Gamma\) is a factor. In Section 4.1. they prove that, if \(q \geq 3\), \(L^\infty (\Omega) \rtimes \Gamma\) is the hyperfinite factor of type \(\text{III}_{1/q}2\). In Section 4.2. they consider the action of some other groups \(G\) acting on triangle buildings and they show that, under certain conditions, the action is of type \(\text{III}_{1/q^2}\). In particular, they prove that, if \(\Omega\) is the boundary of the building associated to PGL \((3, \mathbb{F}_q ((x))\), then the action of PGL \((3, \mathbb{F}_q (x))\) is of type \(\text{III}_{1/q^2}\).