The von Neumann algebra $\VN(G)$ of a locally compact group and quotients of its subspaces

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-1997-055-5
Canad. J. Math. 49(1997), 1117-1138

  Published:1997-12-01
 Printed: Dec 1997

Let $\VN(G)$ be the von Neumann algebra of a locally compact group $G$. We denote by $\mu$ the initial ordinal with $\abs{\mu}$ equal to the smallest cardinality of an open basis at the unit of $G$ and $X= \{\alpha; \alpha < \mu \}$. We show that if $G$ is nondiscrete then there exist an isometric $*$-isomorphism $\kappa$ of $l^{\infty}(X)$ into $\VN(G)$ and a positive linear mapping $\pi$ of $\VN(G)$ onto $l^{\infty}(X)$ such that $\pi\circ\kappa = \id_{l^{\infty}(X)}$ and $\kappa$ and $\pi$ have certain additional properties. Let $\UCB (\hat{G})$ be the $C^{*}$-algebra generated by operators in $\VN(G)$ with compact support and $F(\hat{G})$ the space of all $T \in \VN(G)$ such that all topologically invariant means on $\VN(G)$ attain the same value at $T$. The construction of the mapping $\pi$ leads to the conclusion that the quotient space $\UCB (\hat{G})/F(\hat{G})\cap \UCB(\hat{G})$ has $l^{\infty}(X)$ as a continuous linear image if $G$ is nondiscrete. When $G$ is further assumed to be non-metrizable, it is shown that $\UCB(\hat{G})/F (\hat{G})\cap \UCB(\hat{G})$ contains a linear isomorphic copy of $l^{\infty}(X)$. Similar results are also obtained for other quotient spaces.