ON FUNDAMENTAL GROUPS OF TENSOR PRODUCT FACTORS

Abstract

Let $M$ be a $\text{II}_{1}$ factor and let ${\mathcal{F}}(M)$ denote the fundamental group of $M$. In this article, we study the following property of $M$: for any $\text{II}_{1}$ factor $B$, we have ${\mathcal{F}}(M\,\overline{\otimes }\,B)={\mathcal{F}}(M){\mathcal{F}}(B)$. We prove that for any subgroup $G\leqslant \mathbb{R}_{+}^{\ast }$ which is realized as a fundamental group of a $\text{II}_{1}$ factor, there exists a $\text{II}_{1}$ factor $M$ which satisfies this property and whose fundamental group is $G$. Using this, we deduce that if $G,H\leqslant \mathbb{R}_{+}^{\ast }$ are realized as fundamental groups of $\text{II}_{1}$ factors, then so are groups $G\cdot H$ and $G\cap H$.