A free product pair rigidity result in von Neumann algebras (Q2327772)

This article contributes to the question when a von Neumann algebraic free product remembers the number and isomorphism type of its factors. In the setting of type III factors, which are considered here, it is natural to not only take the free product von Neumann algebra into account but also the free product state. The main result (Theorem 1.1) says that if \(\varphi_1, \dotsc, \varphi_n\) are weakly mixing states on the amenable type III\(_1\) factor \(R_\infty\), then the free product \(\bigstar_{i=1}^n (R_\infty, \varphi_i)\) remembers the number of factors \(n\) and the states \(\varphi_1, \dotsc, \varphi_n\) up to precomposition with an automorphism. Here a normal state on \(\varphi\) on a von Neumann algebra is called weakly mixing if the respresentation of \(\mathbb{R}\) on the space \(\mathrm{L}^2(M, \varphi) \ominus \mathbb{C}\hat 1\) induced by the modular automorphism group of \(\varphi\) has no finite dimensional subrepresentation, The main result of the article is proven in Section 3. Notably, in Section 2 a new variant of Popa's intertwining-by-bimodules criterion for type III von Neumann algebras is presented. Further, Section 4 speculates about possible applications of the present techniques to the free group factor isomorphism problem.