The proposer will continue his study of the longstanding Kadison--Ringrose conjecture on the cohomology of von Neumann algebras. He will use and refine some recently developed techniques needed to show the complete boundedness of certain multilinear operators. Investigations of the cohomology groups have led naturally to the recently introduced concept of norming subalgebras, and this topic will be pursued since it applies directly to both cohomology and the bounded projection problem. In a different, but related, direction, maximal abelian subalgebras (masas) and general subalgebras of von Neumann algebras will be studied. In joint work, the proposer has introduced the concept of strongly singular masas, and has shown that many finite factors arising from hyperbolic groups (a class which includes the free groups) have such masas. The results so far obtained indicate that the theory can now expand to study general subalgebras. This relates directly to the structure of factors (the building blocks of operator algebras), and the overall goal of these proposed areas of research is to increase our understanding in this area. Building on previously accomplished work, problems in the theory of topological entropy for automorphisms will be studied. Automorphisms are the most basic objects associated to operator algebras, and they can reveal different facets of the same underlying object. The entropy is a numerical constant that distinguishes different automorphisms. Previous joint work of the proposer showed that the current theory, based on completely positive maps, can be better reformulated in terms of complete contractions. This puts the theory into a much more flexible situation where more general and powerful tools can be brought to bear on the problems of the field, notably relating to crossed products by automorphism groups.
The modern study of operator algebras has evolved from two main sources. Matrices, which are generalizations of numbers, were introduced to solve equations and now find applications from computer graphics to search engines for the web. In formulating quantum mechanics mathematically, von Neumann found that he needed infinite dimensional versions of matrices called linear operators which were best studied in operator algebras. Moreover the time evolution of quantum mechanical systems came to be expressed in terms of the crossed product by groups of automorphisms, and here topological entropy plays an important role. The project is mainly concerned with the theoretical underpinnings of operator algebras, but the proposed work in these areas could impact some of these more concrete areas, since the finite factors are those operator algebras which most closely model matrices.
