Rigidity results for Bernoulli actions and their von Neumann algebras
Using very original methods from operator algebras, Sorin Popa has shown that the orbit structure of the Bernoulli action of a property (T) group, completely remembers the group and the action. This information is even essentially contained in the crossed product von Neumann algebra. This is the first von Neumann strong rigidity theorem in the literature. The same methods allow Popa to obtain II factors with prescribed countable fundamental group.