We obtain a complete characterisation of factorial multiparameter Hecke von Neumann algebras associated with right-angled Coxeter groups. Considering their l(p)-convolution algebra analogues, we exhibit an interesting parameter dependence, contrasting phenomena observed earlier for group Banach algebras. Translated to Iwahori-Hecke von Neumann algebras, these results allow us to draw conclusions on spherical representation theory of groups acting on right-angled buildings, which are in strong contrast to behaviour of spherical representations in the affine case. We also investigate certain graph product representations of right-angled Coxeter groups and note that our von Neumann algebraic structure results show that these are finite factor representations. Further classifying a suitable family of them up to unitary equivalence allows us to reveal high-dimensional Euclidean subspaces of the space of extremal characters of right-angled Coxeter groups. 

We show that the universal minimal proximal flow and the universal minimal strongly proximal flow of a discrete group can be realized as the Stone spaces of translation-invariant Boolean algebras of subsets of the group satisfying a higher-order notion of syndeticity. We establish algebraic, combinatorial and topological dynamical characterizations of these subsets that we use to obtain new necessary and sufficient conditions for strong amenability and amenability. We also characterize dense orbit sets, answering a question of Glasner, Tsankov, Weiss and Zucker.

We give algebraic characterisations of the type I and CCR properties for locally compact second countable, ample Hausdorff groupoids in terms of subquotients of its Boolean inverse semigroup of compact open local bisections. It yields in turn algebraic characterisations of both properties for inverse semigroups with meets in terms of subquotients of their Booleanisation. 

Exploiting the graph product structure and results concerning amalgamated free products of C*-algebras we provide an explicit computation of the K-theoretic invariants of right-angled Hecke C*-algebras, including concrete algebraic repre-sentants of a basis in K-theory. On the way, we show that these Hecke algebras are KK-equivalent with their undeformed counterparts and satisfy the UCT. Our results are applied to study the isomorphism problem for Hecke C*-algebras, highlighting the limits of K-theoretic classification, both for varying Coxeter type as well as for fixed Coxeter type.

We completely classify Cartan subalgebras of dimension drop algebras with coprime parameters. More generally, we classify Cartan subalgebras of arbitrary stabilised dimension drop algebras that are non-degenerate in the sense that the dimensions of their fibres in the endpoints are maximal. Conjugacy classes by an automorphism are parametrised by certain congruence classes of matrices over the natural numbers with prescribed row and column sums. In particular, each dimension drop algebra admits only finitely many non-degenerate Cartan subalgebras up to conjugacy. As a consequence of this parametrisation, we can provide examples of subhomogeneous C*-algebras with exactly n Cartan subalgebras up to conjugacy. Moreover, we show that in many dimension drop algebras two Cartan subalgebras are conjugate if and only if their spectra are homeomorphic.

This article is concerned with measure equivalence and uniform measure equivalence of locally compact, second countable groups. We show that two unimodular, locally compact, second countable groups are measure equivalent if and only if they admit free, ergodic, probability measure preserving actions whose cross section equivalence relations are stably orbit equivalent. Using this we prove that in the presence of amenability any two such groups are measure equivalent and that both amenability and property (T) are preserved under measure equivalence, extending results of Connes–Feldman–Weiss and Furman. Furthermore, we introduce a notion of uniform measure equivalence for unimodular, locally compact, second countable groups, and prove that under the additional assumption of amenability this notion coincides with coarse equivalence, generalizing results of Shalom and Sauer. Throughout the article we rigorously treat measure theoretic issues arising in the setting of non-discrete groups.

We undertake a comprehensive study of measure equivalence between general locally compact, second countable groups, providing operator algebraic and ergodic theoretic reformulations, and complete the classification of amenable groups within this class up to measure equivalence. 

A group is said to be C∗-simple if its reduced C∗-algebra is simple. This talk will start with a short history of C∗-simplicity before 2014, the year of the discovery by Kalantar-Kennedy that two boundaries of a group are exactly the same: the Furstenberg boundary, coming from topological dynamics, and the Hamana boundary, coming from operator algebras. This discovery supplies the main tool in the work of Breuillard-Kalantar-Kennedy-Ozawa that solves most classical problems in the domain of C∗-simplicity. The fascinating interaction between groups, operator algebras, representation theory, and topological dynamics is present in this work. The talk ends with an explanation of the work of Kennedy and Haagerup which makes the connection between these recent developments and original ideas in the area around Dixmier's property and the amenable radical.

Un groupe est dit C∗-simple si sa C∗-algèbre réduite est simple. Cet exposé commence par un résumé d'histoire de la C∗-simplicité avant 2014, l'année de la découverte par Kalantar-Kennedy que deux frontières d'un groupe sont tout à fait les mêmes : celle de Furstenberg, provenant de la dynamique topologique, et celle de Hamana, provenant des algèbres d'opérateurs. Cette découverte fournissait l'outil principal du travail de Breuillard-Kalantar-Kennedy-Ozawa qui a résolu la majorité des problèmes classiques dans le domaine de la C∗-simplicité. L'interaction fascinante entre les groupes, les algèbres d'opérateurs, la théorie des représentations et la dynamique topologique est présente dans ce travail. L'exposé finit avec une explication des travaux de Kennedy et de Haagerup, qui connectent ces développements récents avec les idées originales du domaine autour de la propriété de Dixmier et du radical moyennable.

We address the problem to characterise closed type I subgroups of the automorphism group of a tree. Even in the well-studied case of Burger-Mozes' universal groups, non-type I criteria were unknown. We prove that a huge class of groups acting properly on trees are not of type I. In the case of Burger-Mozes groups, this yields a complete classification of type I groups among them. Our key novelty is the use of von Neumann algebraic techniques to prove the stronger statement that the group von Neumann algebra of the groups under consideration is non-amenable.

We show that torsion-free finitely generated nilpotent groups are characterised by their group C*-algebras and we additionally recover their nilpotency class as well as the subquotients of the upper central series. We then use a C*-bundle decomposition and apply K-theoretic methods based on noncommutative tori to prove that every torsion-free finitely generated 2-step nilpotent group can be recovered from its group C*-algebra.