Malnormal subgroups of lattices and the Pukánszky invariant in group factors (Q961501)

Let \(G\) be a group. A subgroup \(H\) is called malnormal if for all \(x\in G\backslash H\) the intersection of \(H\) with the conjugate subgroup \(xHx^{-1}\) is trivial. In particular, an abelian malnormal subgroup is maximal abelian. Assume that \(G\) is a connected semisimple real algebraic group with \(\mathbb R\)-rank \(d\). The authors show that if \(G(\mathbb R)\) has no compact factors and \(H\) is a torsion-free uniform lattice subgroup then \(H\) contains a malnormal abelian subgroup isomorphic to \(\mathbb Z^d\). This theorem is applied to the von Neumann algebra of \(H\). It is concluded that this algebra contains a maximal abelian \(\ast\)-subalgebra with Pukánszky invariant \(\{\infty\}\).