1.1. The automorphism group of a von Neumann algebra reflects the structure of the algebra in many ways, and this idea was a cornerstone in the first pioneering works of A. Connes (cf. e.g. ). In fact the classification of (groups of) automorphisms is essential to most known classification theorems in von Neumann algebra. A main reason for the usefulness of this approach is that the automorphism group Aut(M) of a von Neumann algebra M can be topologized in a very nice way. Of course, several natural locally convex topologies on Aut(M) can be defined, but one of them is particularly useful, namely the u-topology (cf.).
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