Asymptotic freeness in tracial ultraproducts

Abstract: We prove novel asymptotic freeness results in tracial ultraproduct von Neumann algebras. In particular, we show that whenever $M = M_1 \ast M_2$ is a tracial free product von Neumann algebra and $u_1 \in \mathscr U(M_1)$, $u_2 \in \mathscr U(M_2)$ are Haar unitaries, the relative commutants ${u_1}' \cap M^{\mathcal U}$ and ${u_2}' \cap M^{\mathcal U}$ are freely independent in the ultraproduct $M^{\mathcal U}$. Our proof relies on Mei-Ricard's results [MR16] regarding $\operatorname{L}^p$-boundedness (for all $1 < p < +\infty$) of certain Fourier multipliers in tracial amalgamated free products von Neumann algebras. We derive two applications. Firstly, we obtain a general absorption result in tracial amalgamated free products that recovers several previous maximal amenability/Gamma absorption results. Secondly, we prove a new lifting theorem which we combine with our asymptotic freeness results and Chifan-Ioana-Kunnawalkam Elayavalli's recent construction [CIKE22] to provide the first example of a ${\rm II_1}$ factor that does not have property Gamma and is not elementary equivalent to any free product of diffuse tracial von Neumann algebras.