On Cardinal Invariants and Generators for von Neumann Algebras

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-2011-048-2
Canad. J. Math. 64(2012), 455-480

  Published:2011-07-15
 Printed: Apr 2012

We demonstrate how most common cardinal invariants associated with a von Neumann algebra $\mathcal M$ can be computed from the decomposability number, $\operatorname{dens}(\mathcal M)$, and the minimal cardinality of a generating set, $\operatorname{gen}(\mathcal M)$. Applications include the equivalence of the well-known generator problem, ``Is every separably-acting von Neumann algebra singly-generated?", with the formally stronger questions, ``Is every countably-generated von Neumann algebra singly-generated?" and ``Is the $\operatorname{gen}$ invariant monotone?" Modulo the generator problem, we determine the range of the invariant $\bigl( \operatorname{gen}(\mathcal M), \operatorname{dens}(\mathcal M) \bigr)$, which is mostly governed by the inequality $\operatorname{dens}(\mathcal M) \leq \mathfrak C^{\operatorname{gen}(\mathcal M)}$.