Semiregular maximal Abelian *-subalgebras and the solution to the factor state Stone-Weierstrass problem (Q787443)

A maximal abelian *-subalgebra (abbreviated as MASA) A of a factor von Neumann algebra M (on a separable Hilbert space) is said to be semiregular if the normalizing group of A in M given by \(\{\) u unitary in \(M| uAu^*=A\}\) acts ergodically on A. The author has previously proved that type \(II_ 1\) and type \(II_{\infty}\) have semiregular MASA's [Invent. Math. 65, 269-281 (1981; Zbl 0481.46028)] and thus type \(III_{\lambda}(0<\lambda <1)\) factors have semiregular MASA's. Also, type \(III_ 0\) factors have semi-regular MASA's [cf. \textit{C. A. Akemann}, \textit{J. Anderson}, Invariant Subspaces and other topics, 6th. unit. Conf., Timişoara and Herculane/Rom. 1981, Operator Theory: Adv Appl. 6, 15-32 (1982; Zbl 0521.46047)]. In this paper, the author shows that every factor of type \(III_ 1\) has a semiregular MASA. Consequently, every factor has a semiregular MASA. This is the last step in the program started by J. Anderson and J. Bunce to prove a version of the Stone-Weierstrass Theorem for \(C^*\)-algebras: if \(B_ 0\) and B are separable \(C^*\)-algebras with \(B_ 0\subset B\) and if \(B_ 0\) separates the factor states of B, then \(B=B_ 0\). [\textit{R. Longo}, Invent. Math. 76, 145-155 (1984; Zbl 0538.46045)] has also given a proof of the Stone-Weierstrass Theorem for factor states based on standard \(W^*\)-inclusions.] The author also shows that every von Neumann algebra M on a separable Hilbert space contains an approxmately finite dimensional subfactor N with \(N'\cap M={\mathbb{C}}\).