Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2019
Let ℳ be a semifinite von Neumann algebra with a faithful semifinite normal trace τ. Assume that E(0, ∞) is an M-embedded fully symmetric function space having order continuous norm and is not a superset of the set of all bounded vanishing functions on (0, ∞). In this paper, we prove that the corresponding operator space E(ℳ, τ) is also M-embedded. It extends earlier results by Werner [48, Proposition 4∙1] from the particular case of symmetric ideals of bounded operators on a separable Hilbert space to the case of symmetric spaces (consisting of possibly unbounded operators) on an arbitrary semifinite von Neumann algebra. Several applications are given, e.g., the derivation problem for noncommutative Lorentz spaces ℒp,1(ℳ, τ), 1 < p < ∞, has a positive answer.