We study skew-amenable topological groups, i.e., those admitting a left-invariant mean on the space of bounded real-valued functions left-uniformly continuous in the sense of Bourbaki. We prove characterizations of skew-amenability for topological groups of isometries and automorphisms, clarify the connection with extensive amenability of group actions, establish a Følner-type characterization, and discuss closure properties of the class of skew-amenable topological groups. Moreover, we isolate a dynamical sufficient condition for skew-amenability and provide several concrete variations of this criterion in the context of transformation groups. These results are then used to decide skew-amenability for a number of examples of topological groups built from or related to Thompson's group $F$ and Monod's group of piecewise projective homeomorphisms of the real line.
We show that if $G$ is an amenable topological group, then the topological group $L^{0}(G)$ of strongly measurable maps from $([0,1],λ)$ into $G$ endowed with the topology of convergence in measure is whirly amenable, hence extremely amenable. Conversely, we prove that a topological group $G$ is amenable if $L^{0}(G)$ is.
We establish a characterization of amenability for general Hausdorff topological groups in terms of matchings with respect to finite uniform coverings. Furthermore, we prove that it suffices to just consider two-element uniform coverings. We also show that extremely amenable as well as compactly approximable topological groups satisfy a perfect matching property condition -- the latter even with regard to arbitrary uniform coverings. Finally, we prove that the automorphism group of a Fraïssé limit of a metric Fraïssé class is amenable if and only if the considered metric Fraïssé class has a ce…
The purpose of this expository article is to revisit the notions of amenability and ergodicity, and to point out that they appear for topological groups that are not necessarily locally compact in articles by Bogolyubov (1939), Fomin (1950), Dixmier (1950), and Rickert (1967).
Generalizing Block and Weinberger's characterization of amenability we introduce the notion of uniformly finite homology for a group action on a compact space and use it to give a homological characterization of topological amenability for actions. By considering the case of the natural action of $G$ on its Stone-\vCech compactification we obtain a homological characterization of exactness of the group, answering a question of Nigel Higson.
We show that the groups of finite energy loops and paths (that is, those of Sobolev class $H^1$) with values in a compact connected Lie group, as well as their central extensions, satisfy an amenability-like property: they admit a left-invariant mean on the space of bounded functions uniformly continuous with regard to a left-invariant metric. Every strongly continuous unitary representation $π$ of such a group (which we call skew-amenable) has a conjugation-invariant state on $B({\mathcal H}_π)$.
This text surveys classical and recent results in the field of amenability of groups, from a combinatorial standpoint. It has served as the support of courses at the University of Göttingen and the École Normale Supérieure. The goals of the text are (1) to be as self-contained as possible, so as to serve as a good introduction for newcomers to the field; (2) to stress the use of combinatorial tools, in collaboration with functional analysis, probability etc., with discrete groups in focus; (3) to consider from the beginning the more general notion of amenable actions; (4) to describe recent cl…
Let G be a locally compact topological group and X a compact space with continuous G-action. The main result of this essay states that the following statements are equivalent : 1) The action of G on X is topologically amenable ; 2) Every dual (G, X)-module of type C is a relatively injective Banach G-module ; 3) There is a G-invariant element in the double dual of C(X, L1(G)).
For locally compact groups amenability and Kazhdan's property (T) are mutually exclusive in the sense that a group having both properties is compact. This is no longer true for more general Polish groups. However, a weaker result still holds for SIN groups (topological groups admitting a basis of conjugation-invariant neighbourhoods of identity): if such a group admits sufficiently many unitary representations, then it is precompact as soon as it is amenable and has the strong property (T) (i.e. admits a finite Kazhdan set). If an amenable topological group with property (T) admits a faithful …
We show that for any abelian topological group $G$ and arbitrary diffused submeasure $μ$, every continuous action of $L_0(μ,G)$ on a compact space has a fixed point. This generalizes earlier results of Herer and Christensen, Glasner, Furstenberg and Weiss, and Farah and Solecki. This also answers a question posed by Farah and Solecki. In particular, it implies that if $H$ is of the form $L_0(μ,\mathbb{R})$, then $H$ is extremely amenable if and only if $H$ has no nontrivial characters, which gives an evidence for an affirmative answer to a question of Pestov. The proof is based on estimates of…
We prove that the action of the automorphism group of a building on its boundary is topologically amenable. The notion of boundary we use was defined in a previous paper \cite{CL}. It follows from this result that such groups have property (A), and thus satisfy the Novikov conjecture. It may also lead to applications in rigidity theory.
We show that the universal minimimal proximal flow and the universal minimal strongly proximal flow of a discrete group can be realized as the Stone spaces of translation invariant Boolean algebras of subsets of the group satisfying a higher order notion of syndeticity. We establish algebraic, combinatorial and topological dynamical characterizations of these subsets that we use to obtain new necessary and sufficient conditions for strong amenability and amenability. We also characterize dense orbit sets, answering a question of Glasner, Tsankov, Weiss and Zucker.
We introduce a novel quantity for general dynamical systems, which we call the asymptotic uniform complexity. We prove an inequality relating the asymptotic uniform complexity of a dynamical system to its mean topological matching number. Furthermore, we show that the established inequality yields an exact equation for perfect Hausdorff dynamical systems. Utilizing these results, we conclude that a dynamical system is amenable if its asymptotic uniform complexity equals one, and that the converse is true for perfect Hausdorff dynamical systems, such as non-discrete Hausdorff topological groups…
The purpose of this paper is to study the notion of relative extreme amenability for pairs of topological groups. We give a characterization by a fixed point property on universal spaces. In addition we introduce the concepts of an extremely amenable interpolant as well as maximally relatively extremely amenable pairs and give examples. It is shown that relative extreme amenability does not imply the existence of an extremely amenable interpolant. The theory is applied to generalize results of Kechris, Pestov and Todorcevic relating to the application of Fraïssé theory to the theory of Dynamic…
We prove a general version of the amenability conjecture in the unified setting of a Gromov hyperbolic group G acting properly cocompactly either on its Cayley graph, or on a CAT(-1)-space. Namely, for any subgroup H of G, we show that H is co-amenable in G if and only if their exponential growth rates (with respect to the prescribed action) coincide. For this, we prove a quantified, representation-theoretical version of Stadlbauer's amenability criterion for group extensions of a topologically transitive subshift of finite type, in terms of the spectral radii of the classical Ruelle transfer …
We construct a geometric model for the mapping class group M of a non-exceptional oriented surface of finite type and use it to show that the action of M on the compact Hausdorff space of complete geodesic laminations is topologically amenable. As a consequence, the Novikov higher signature conjecture holds for every subgroup of M.
We study the connection between amenability, Følner conditions and the geometry of finitely generated semigroups. Using results of Klawe, we show that within an extremely broad class of semigroups (encompassing all groups, left cancellative semigroups, finite semigroups, compact topological semigroups, inverse semigroups, regular semigroups, commutative semigroups and semigroups with a left, right or two-sided zero element), left amenability coincides with the strong Følner condition. Within the same class, we show that a finitely generated semigroup of subexponential growth is left amenable i…
A group is said to be strongly amenable if each of its proximal topological actions has a fixed point. We show that a finitely generated group is strongly amenable if and only if it is virtually nilpotent. More generally, a countable discrete group is strongly amenable if and only if none of its quotients have the infinite conjugacy class property.
Let K be a fine hyperbolic graph and G be a group acting on K with finite quotient. We prove that G is exact provided that all vertex stabilizers are exact. In particular, a relatively hyperbolic group is exact if all its peripheral groups are exact. We prove this by showing that the group G acts amenably on a compact topological space. We include some applications to the theories of group von Neumann algebras and of measurable orbit equivalence relations.
We prove that the alternating group of a topologically free action of a countably infinite group $Γ$ on the Cantor set has the property that all of its $\ell^2$-Betti numbers vanish and, in the case that $Γ$ is amenable, is stable in the sense of Jones and Schmidt and has property Gamma (and in particular is inner amenable). We show moreover in the realm of amenable $Γ$ that there are many such alternating groups which are simple, finitely generated, and C$^*$-simple. The device for establishing nonisomorphism among these examples is a topological version of Austin's result on the invariance o…
In a previous paper the authors developed an operator-algebraic approach to Lewis Bowen's sofic measure entropy that yields invariants for actions of countable sofic groups by homeomorphisms on a compact metrizable space and by measure-preserving transformations on a standard probability space. We show here that these measure and topological entropy invariants both coincide with their classical counterparts when the acting group is amenable.
We show that amenability of a group acting by homeomorphisms can be deduced from a certain local property of the action and recurrency of the orbital Schreier graphs. This covers amenability of a wide class groups, the amenability of which was an open problem, as well as unifies many known examples to one general proof. In particular, this includes Grigorchuk's group, Basilica group, the full topological group of Cantor minimal system, groups acting on rooted trees by bounded automorphisms, groups generated by finite automata of linear activity growth, groups that naturally appear in holomorph…
In this work we introduce and study a new notion of amenability for actions of locally compact groups on $C^*$-algebras. Our definition extends the definition of amenability for actions of discrete groups due to Claire Anantharaman-Delaroche. We show that our definition has several characterizations and permanence properties analogous to those known in the discrete case. For example, for actions on commutative $C^*$-algebras, we show that our notion of amenability is equivalent to measurewise amenability. Combined with a recent result of Alex Bearden and Jason Crann, this also settles a long s…
We discuss definable compactifications and topological dynamics. For G a group definable in some structure M, we define notions of "definable" compactification of G and "definable" action of G on a compact space X (definable G-flow), where the latter is under a definability of types assumption on M. We describe the universal definable compactification of G as G*/G*00_M and the universal definable G-ambit as the type space S_{G}(M). We also prove existence and uniqueness of "universal minimal definable G-flows", and discuss issues of amenability and extreme amenability in this definable categor…
We study harmonic functions and Poisson boundaries for Borel probability measures on general (i.e., not necessarily locally compact) topological groups, and we prove that a second-countable topological group is amenable if and only if it admits a fully supported, regular Borel probability measure with trivial Poisson boundary. This generalizes work of Kaimanovich--Vershik and Rosenblatt, confirms a general topological version of Furstenberg's conjecture, and entails a characterization of the amenability of isometry groups in terms of the Liouville property for induced actions. Moreover, our re…
We study amenability of definable and topological groups. Among our main technical tools is an elaboration on and strengthening of the Massicot-Wagner version of the stabilizer theorem, and some results around measures. As an application we show that if $G$ is an amenable topological group, then the Bohr compactification of $G$ coincides with a certain "weak Bohr compactification" introduced in [24]. Formally, $G^{00}_{topo} = G^{000}_{topo}$. We also prove wide generalizations of this result, implying in particular its extension to a "definable-topological" context, confirming the main conjec…
We extend Følner's amenability criterion to the realm of general topological groups. Building on this, we show that a topological group $G$ is amenable if and only if its left translation action can be approximated in a uniform manner by amenable actions on the set $G$. As applications we obtain a topological version of Whyte's geometric solution to the von Neumann problem and provide an affirmative answer to a question posed by Rosendal.
In this thesis, we study the existence of universal objets of two differents types in the theory of topological groups and theirs actions on compacts spaces. In the first part, we contribute to the problem of existence of test spaces for amenability. We observe that a Polish group is amenable if and only if its every continuous action on the Hilbert cube admits an invariant probability measure. This generalizes a result of Bogatyi and Fedorchuk. We also show that actions on the Cantor space can be used to detect amenability and extreme amenability of Polish non-archimedean groups as well as am…
A topological group $G$ has the Approximate Fixed Point (AFP) property on a bounded convex subset $C$ of a locally convex space if every continuous affine action of $G$ on $C$ admits a net $(x_i)$, $x_i\in C$, such that $x_{i}-gx_{i}\longrightarrow 0$ for all $g\in G$. We study the relationship of this property with amenability.
We study continuous bounded cohomology of totally disconnected locally compact groups with coefficients in a non-Archimedean valued field $K$. To capture the features of classical amenability that induce the vanishing of real bounded cohomology, we introduce the notion of normed $K$-amenability, of which we prove an algebraic characterization. It implies that normed $K$-amenable groups are locally elliptic, and it relates an invariant, the norm of a $K$-amenable group, to the order of its discrete finite $p$-subquotients, where $p$ is the characteristic of the residue field of $K$. Moreover, w…
We study actions of discrete groups on Hilbert $C^*$-modules induced from topological actions on compact Hausdorff spaces. We show non-amenability of actions of non-amenable and non-a-T-menable groups, provided there exists a quasi-invariant probability measure which is sufficiently close to being invariant.
We study the topological structure and the topological dynamics of groups of homeomorphisms of scattered spaces. For a large class of them (including the homeomorphism group of any ordinal space or of any locally compact scattered space), we establish Roelcke-precompactness and amenability, classify all closed normal subgroups and compute the universal minimal flow. As a by-product, we classify up to isomorphism the homeomorphism groups of compact ordinal spaces.
We show that topological amenability of an action of a countable discrete group on a compact space is equivalent to the existence of an invariant mean for the action. We prove also that this is equivalent to vanishing of bounded cohomology for a class of Banach G-modules associated to the action, as well as to vanishing of a specific cohomology class. In the case when the compact space is a point our result reduces to a classic theorem of B.E. Johnson characterising amenability of groups. In the case when the compact space is the Stone-Čech compactification of the group we obtain a cohomologic…
This is a survey of the recent development of the study of topological full groups of etale groupoids on the Cantor set. Etale groupoids arise from dynamical systems, e.g. actions of countable discrete groups, equivalence relations. Minimal Z-actions, minimal Z^N-actions and one-sided shifts of finite type are basic examples. We are interested in algebraic, geometric and analytic properties of topological full groups. More concretely, we discuss simplicity of commutator subgroups, abelianization, finite generation, cohomological finiteness properties, amenability, the Haagerup property, and so…
We prove that, if $G$ is a second-countable topological group with a compatible right-invariant metric $d$ and $(μ_{n})_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ is a sequence of compactly supported Borel probability measures on $G$ converging to invariance with respect to the mass transportation distance over $d$ and such that $\left(\mathrm{spt} \, μ_{n}, d\!\!\upharpoonright_{\mathrm{spt} \, μ_{n}}, μ_{n}\!\!\upharpoonright_{\mathrm{spt} \, μ_{n}}\right)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ concentrates to a fully supported, compact $mm$-space $\left(X,d_{X},μ_{X}\right)$, then $X$ is homeomorphic to a $G$-invariant subspace of …
Johnson's characterization of amenable groups states that a discrete group $Γ$ is amenable if and only if $H_b^{n \geq 1}(Γ; V) = 0$ for all dual normed $\mathbb{R}[Γ]$-modules V. In this paper, we extend the previous result to homomorphisms by proving the converse of the Mapping Theorem: a surjective group homomorphism $ϕ\colon Γ\to K$ has amenable kernel H if and only if the induced inflation map $H^\bullet_b(K; V^H) \to H^\bullet_b(Γ; V)$ is an isometric isomorphism for every dual normed $\mathbb{R}[Γ]$-module V. In addition, we obtain an analogous characterization for the (smaller) class o…
In this article smashed products of topological left quasigroups are scrutinized. Quotients of topological fan quasigroups are investigated. Skew smashed products of fan quasigroups and their structure also are studied.
For an amenable minimal topologically free dynamical system $α$ of a group on a compact metrizable space $Z$ and for a compact metrizable space $Y$ satisfying a mild condition, we construct a minimal skew product extension of $α$ on $Z\times Y$. This generalizes a result of Glasner and Weiss. We also study the pure infiniteness of the crossed products of minimal dynamical systems arising from this result. In particular, we give a generalization of a result of Rørdam and Sierakowski.
We give a formula relating the topological rank of the full group of an aperiodic pmp equivalence relation to the cost of its ergodic components. Furthermore, we obtain examples of full groups having a dense free subgroup whose rank is equal to the topological rank of the full group, using a Baire category argument. We then study the automatic continuity property for full groups of aperiodic equivalence relations, and find a connected metric for which they have the automatic continuity property. This allows us to give an algebraic characterization of aperiodicity for pmp equivalence relations,…
