Factoriality of Hecke-von Neumann algebras of right-angled Coxeter groups (Q906318)

This interesting paper establishes the result in the title, and presents connections with the work of \textit{K. Dykema} [Duke Math. J. 69, No. 1, 97--119 (1993; Zbl 0784.46044)]. The starting point is the Hecke algebra \(\mathbb{C}_q(W)\) associated to a Coxeter group \(W\) by means of a deformation of the group algebra of \(W\). The deformation parameter \(q>0\) enters the multiplication formula: more precisely, \(\mathbb{C}_q(W)\) is uniquely determined as a \(*\)-algebra by a basis \(\{\tilde{T}_w\mid w\in W\}\) subject to relations \[ \begin{aligned} \tilde{T}_s\tilde{T}_w &=\begin{cases} \tilde{T}_{sw} &\text{if }|sw|>|w|\\ q\tilde{T}_{sw}+(q-1)\tilde{T}_w&\text{otherwise};\end{cases} \\ \tilde{T}^*_w &=\tilde{T}_{w^{-1}},\end{aligned} \] where \(w\) belongs to \(W\), \(s\) belongs to a generating set \(S\) for \(W\), and \(|w|\) represents the word length. The main result of the paper (Theorem 5.3) says that when \((W,S)\) is an irreducible right-angled Coxeter system with \(W\) neither cyclic of order \(2\) nor infinite dihedral, then the Hecke-von Neumann algebra \(\mathcal{N}_q(W)\) associated to \(W\) and \(q>0\) is a factor precisely when \(q\in [\rho,\rho^{-1}]\), where \(\rho\) is the convergence radius of the growth series \(W(t)\) of \(W\). For \(q\) outside this interval, \(\mathcal{N}_q(W)\) decomposes as a direct sum of a factor and \(\mathbb{C}\). The announced connection with free products of von Neumann algebras is a byproduct of a result in [loc. cit.] reformulated here as Theorem 6.3. Namely, when \(W\) is a free product of the form \(\mathbb{Z}_2^{k_1}\ast\cdots \ast\mathbb{Z}_2^{k_n}\), with \(k_1\geq 2\) and \(n\geq 2\), the author obtains criteria for determining the range of \(q\) such that \(\mathcal{N}_q(W)\) is a factor and, in addition, describes this factor to be an interpolated free group factor.