Maximal abelian subalgebras of the group factor of an $\widetilde A_2$ group

Abstract

An $\widetilde A_2$ group $\Gamma$ acts simply transitively on the vertices of an affine building $\triangle$. We study certain subgroups $\Gamma_0 \cong {\Bbb Z}^2$ which act on certain apartments of $\triangle$. If one of these subgroups acts simply transitively on an apartment, then the corresponding subalgebra of the group von Neumann algebra is maximal abelian and singular. Moreover the Puk\'anszky invariant contains a type $I_{\infty}$ summand.