On a class of II₁ factors with at most one Cartan subalgebra

We prove that the normalizer of any diffuse amenable subalgebra of a free group factor $L(\Bbb F_r)$ generates an amenable von Neumann subalgebra. Moreover, any II$_1$ factor of the form $Q \vt L(\Bbb F_r) $, with $Q$ an arbitrary subfactor of a tensor product of free group factors, has no Cartan subalgebras. We also prove that if a free ergodic measure preserving action of a free group $\Bbb F_r$, $2\leq r \leq \infty$, on a probability space $(X,\mu)$ is profinite then the group measure space factor $L^\infty(X)\rtimes \Bbb F_r$ has unique Cartan subalgebra, up to unitary conjugacy.