Free groups and quasidiagonality

We use free groups to settle a couple questions about the values of the Pimsner-Popa-Voiculescu modulus of quasidiagonality for a set of operators $Ω$, denoted by qd$(Ω)$. Along the way we deduce information about the operator space structure of finite dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{C}[\mathbb{F}_d]\subseteq C^*_{\ell^p}(\mathbb{F}_d)$ where $C^*_{\ell^p}(\mathbb{F}_d)$ is the so-called $\ell^p$-completion of $\mathbb{C}[\mathbb{F}_d].$ Roughly speaking, we use free groups and qd$(Ω)$ to put a quantitative face on the two known qualitative obstructions to quasidiagonality; absence of an amenable trace or the presence of a proper isometry. The modulus of quasidiagonality for a proper isometry is equal to 1. We show that qd$(\{λ_a,λ_b\})\in [1/2,\sqrt{3}/2]$ where $a$ and $b$ are free group generators and $λ$ is the left regular representation. In another direction, we use certain $\ell^p$ representations of free groups constructed by Pytlik and Szwarc and a recent result of Ruan and Wiersma to show that qd$(Ω)$ may be positive, yet arbitrarily close to zero when $Ω$ is a set of unitaries.

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