We give a new formulation of some of our recent results on the following problem: if all uniformly bounded representations on a discrete group $G$ are similar to unitary ones, is the group amenable? In §5, we give a new proof of Haagerup's theorem that, on non-commutative free groups, there are Herz-Schur multipliers that are not coefficients of uniformly bounded representations. We actually prove a refinement of this result involving a generalization of the class of Herz-Schur multipliers, namely the class $M_d(G)$ which is formed of all the functions $f\colon G\to {\bb C}$ such that there are bounded functions $ξ_i\colon G\to B(H_i, H_{i-1})$ ($H_i$ Hilbert) with $H_0 = {\bb C}$, $H_d ={\bb C}$ such that $$f(t_1t_2... t_d) = ξ_1(t_1) ξ_2(t_2)... ξ_d(t_d).\qquad \forall t_i\in G$$ We prove that if $G$ is a non-commutative free group, for any $d\ge 1$, we have $$M_d(G)\not= M_{d+1}(G),$$ and hence there are elements of $M_d(G)$ which are not coefficients of uniformly bounded representations. In the case $d=2$, Haagerup's theorem implies that $M_2(G)\not= M_{4}(G).$
We show that the open unit ball of the space of operators from a finite dimensional Hilbert space into a separable Hilbert space (we call it "operator ball") has a restricted form of normal structure if we endow it with a hyperbolic metric (which is an analogue of the standard hyperbolic metric on the unit disc in the complex plane). We use this result to get a fixed point theorem for groups of biholomorphic automorphisms of the operator ball. The fixed point theorem is used to show that a bounded representation in a separable Hilbert space which has an invariant indefinite quadratic form with…
We prove that a wreath product of an abelian group and a non-amenable group is not strongly Ulam stable. Previously this was known for groups containing free subgroups, due to work of Burger, Ozawa and Thom, and for some surface groups, due to work by Kazhdan. We also show that these wreath products are not deformation rigid.
We classify outer actions (or $\mathscr{G}$-kernels) of discrete amenable groupoids on injective factors. Our method based on unified approach for classification of discrete amenable groups actions, and cohomology reduction theorem of discrete amenable equivalence relations. We do not use Katayama-Takesaki type resolution group approach.
We apply the Evans-Kishimoto type argument for centrally free actions of discrete amenable groups on McDuff factors, and classify them. Especially, we present a different proof that the Connes-Takesaki modules are complete cocycle conjugacy invariants for centrally free actions of discrete amenable groups on injective factors.
We present a simple unified proof of classification of discrete amenable group actions on injective factors. Our argument does not depend on types of factors. We also show the second cohomology vanishing theorem for arbitrary cocycle crossed actions of discrete amenable groups on the injective factor of type II$_1$.
Amenable actions of locally compact groups on von Neumann algebras are investigated by exploiting the natural module structure of the crossed product over the Fourier algebra of the acting group. The resulting characterisation of injectivity for crossed products generalises a result of Anantharaman-Delaroche on discrete groups. Amenable actions of locally compact groups on $C^*$-algebras are investigated in the same way, and amenability of the action is related to nuclearity of the corresponding crossed product. A survey is given to show that this notion of amenable action for $C^*$-algebras s…
We study uniform perturbations of crossed product C$^*$-algebras by amenable groups. Given a unital inclusion of C$^*$-algebras $C\subseteq D$ and sufficiently close separable intermediate C$^*$-subalgebras $A$, $B$ for this inclusion with a conditional expectation from $D$ onto $B$, if $A=C\rtimes G$ with $G$ discrete amenable, then $A$ and $B$ are isomorphic. Furthermore, if $C\subseteq D$ is irreducible, then $A=B$.
We prove that a discrete group $G$ is amenable iff it is strongly unitarizable in the following sense: every unitarizable representation $π$ on $G$ can be unitarized by an invertible chosen in the von Neumann algebra generated by the range of $π$. Analogously a $C^*$-algebra $A$ is nuclear iff any bounded homomorphism $u: A\to B(H)$ is strongly similar to a $*$-homomorphism in the sense that there is an invertible operator $ξ$ in the von Neumann algebra generated by the range of $u$ such that $a\to ξu(a) ξ^{-1}$ is a $*$-homomorphism. An analogous characterization holds in terms of derivations…
We study actions of countable discrete amenable groups on unital separable simple nuclear Z-absorbing C*-algebras. Under a certain assumption on tracial states, which is automatically satisfied in the case of a unique tracial state, the crossed product is shown to absorb the Jiang-Su algebra Z tensorially.
Using the continuous decomposition, we classify strongly free actions of discrete amenable groups on strongly amenable subfactors of type III$_λ, 0 < λ< 1$. Winsløw's fundamental homomorphism is a complete invariant. This removes the extra assumptions in the classification theorems of Loi and Winsløw and gives a complete classification up to cocycle conjugacy.
We prove that the unitary equivalence classes of extensions of C*_r(G) by any sigma-unital stable C"-algebra, taken modulo extensions which split via an asymptotic homomorphism, form a group which can be calculated from the universal coefficient theorem of KK-theory when G is a free product of a countable collection of amenable groups.
By classifying $S$-maximal amenable subgroups of algebraic groups over a global field of characteristic zero, we obtain a complete classification of maximal amenable subgroups up to commensurability in the respective arithmetic groups. Futhermore, we prove that these commensurably maximal amenable subgroups are singular and therefore give rise to maximal amenable von Neumann subalgebras.
We prove that Wang's free orthogonal and free unitary quantum groups are weakly amenable and that their Cowling-Haagerup constant is equal to 1. This is achieved by estimating the completely bounded norm of the projections on the coefficients of irreducible representations of their compact duals. An argument of monoidal equivalence then allows us to extend this result to quantum automorphism groups of finite spaces and even yields some examples of weakly amenable non-unimodular discrete quantum groups with the Haagerup property.
Z.-J. Ruan has shown that several amenability conditions are all equivalent in the case of discrete Kac algebras. In this paper, we extend this work to the case of discrete quantum groups. That is, we show that a discrete quantum group, where we do not assume its unimodularity, has an invariant mean if and only if it is strongly Voiculescu amenable.
In this paper, we give examples of maximal amenable subalgebras of the free group factor of two generators. More precisely, we consider two copies of the hyperfinite factor $R_i$ of type $\mathrm{II}_1$. From each $R_i$, we take a Haar unitary $u_i$ which generates a Cartan subalgebra of it. We show that the von Neumann subalgebra generated by the self-adjoint operator $u_1+u_1^{-1}+u_2+u_2^{-1}$ is maximal amenable in the free product. This provides infinitely many non-unitary conjugate maximal amenable MASAs.
The Cuntz algebra O_n is presented as a partial crossed product in which an amenable group partially acts on an abelian C*-algebra. The partial action is related to the Cuntz groupoid for O_n and connections are made with non-self-adjoint subalgebras of O_n, particularly the Volterra nest subalgebra. These ideas are also extended to the M_k(O_n) context.
The basic notions and results of equivariant KK-theory concerning crossed products can be extended to the case of locally compact quantum groups. We recall these constructions and prove some usefull properties of subgroups and amalgamated free products of discrete quantum groups. Using these properties and a quantum analogue of the Bass-Serre tree, we establish the K-amenability of amalgamated free products of amenable discrete quantum groups.
We construct the HNN extension of discrete quantum groups, we study their representation theory and we show that an HNN extension of amenable discrete quantum groups is K-amenable.
We show that the group C*-algebra of any elementary amenable group is quasidiagonal. This is an offspring of recent progress in the classification theory of nuclear C*-algebras.
We investigate the notion of relatively amenable topological action and show that the action of Thompson's group $T$ on $S^1$ is relatively amenable with respect to Thompson's group $F$. We use this to conclude that $F$ is exact if and only if $T$ is exact. Moreover, we prove that the groupoid of germs of the action of $T$ on $S^1$ is Borel amenable.
We prove that for any infinite, maximal amenable subgroup $H$ in a hyperbolic group $G$, the von Neumann subalgebra $LH$ is maximal amenable inside $LG$. It provides many new, explicit examples of maximal amenable subalgebras in II$_1$ factors. We also prove similar maximal amenability results for direct products of relatively hyperbolic groups and orbit equivalence relations arising from measure-preserving actions of such groups.
We introduce an Ulam-type stability condition for positive definite maps defined on a countable group and prove that this condition characterizes amenability.
It is proved that a discrete group G is exact if and only if its left translation action on the Stone-Cech compactification is amenable. Combining this with an unpublished result of Gromov, we have the existence of non exact discrete groups.
We construct inner amenable groups G with infinite conjugacy classes and such that the associated II_1 factor does not have property Gamma of Murray and von Neumann. This solves a problem posed by Effros in 1975.
We construct inner amenable and ICC groups having no ergodic, free, probability-measure-preserving and stable action. This solves a problem posed by Jones-Schmidt in 1987.
We show that, if $G$ is an amenable group and $H$ is a hyperbolic group, then the free product $G\ast H$ is weakly amenable. A key ingredient in the proof is the fact that $G\ast H$ is orbit equivalent to $\mathbb{Z}\ast H$.
We prove a mean ergodic theorem for amenable discrete quantum groups. As an application, we prove a Wiener type theorem for continuous measures on compact metrizable groups.
In 1990, Lind, Schmidt and Ward gave a formula for the entropy of certain $\mathbb{Z}^n$-dynamical systems attached to Laurent polynomials $P$, in terms of the (logarithmic) Mahler measure of $P$. We extend the expansive case of their result to the noncommutative setting where $\mathbb{Z}^n$ gets replaced by suitable discrete amenable groups. Generalizing the Mahler measure, Fuglede-Kadison determinants from the theory of group von Neumann algebras appear in the entropy formula.
We show that a Fell bundle B = {B_t}_{t \in F}, over an arbitrary free group F, is amenable, whenever it is orthogonal (in the sense that B_x^* B_y = 0, if x and y are distinct generators of F) and semi-saturated (in the sense that B_{ts} coincides with the closed linear span of B_t B_s, when the multiplication ``ts'' involves no cancelation).
A topological group $G$ is extremely amenable if every continuous action of $G$ on a compact space has a fixed point. Using the concentration of measure techniques developed by Gromov and Milman, we prove that the group of automorphisms of a Lebesgue space with a non-atomic measure is extremely amenable with the weak topology but not with the uniform one. Strengthening a de la Harpe's result, we show that a von Neumann algebra is approximately finite-dimensional if and only if its unitary group with the strong topology is the product of an extremely amenable group with a compact group.
We prove that weak amenability of a locally compact group imposes a strong condition on its amenable closed normal subgroups. This extends non weak amenability results of Haagerup (1988) and Ozawa--Popa (2010). A von Neumann algebra analogue is also obtained.
Kida and Tucker-Drob recently extended the notion of inner amenability from countable groups to discrete p.m.p. groupoids. In this article, we show that inner amenable groupoids have "fixed priced 1" in the sense that every principal extension of an inner amenable groupoid has cost 1. This simultaneously generalizes and unifies two well known results on cost from the literature, namely, (1) a theorem of Kechris stating that every ergodic p.m.p. equivalence relation admitting a nontrivial asymptotically central sequence in its full group has cost 1, and (2) a theorem of Tucker-Drob stating that…
We introduce inner amenability for discrete p.m.p. groupoids and investigate its basic properties, examples, and the connection with central sequences in the full group of the groupoid or central sequences in the von Neumann algebra associated with the groupoid. Among other things, we show that every free ergodic p.m.p. compact action of an inner amenable group gives rise to an inner amenable orbit equivalence relation. We also obtain an analogous result for compact extensions of equivalence relations which either are stable or have a non-trivial central sequence in their full group.
We show that every probability-measure-preserving action of a countable amenable group G can be tiled, modulo a null set, using finitely many finite subsets of G ("shapes") with prescribed approximate invariance so that the collection of tiling centers for each shape is Borel. This is a dynamical version of the Downarowicz--Huczek--Zhang tiling theorem for countable amenable groups and strengthens the Ornstein--Weiss Rokhlin lemma. As an application we prove that, for every countably infinite amenable group G, the crossed product of a generic free minimal action of G on the Cantor set is Z-sta…
We completely characterize connected Lie groups all of whose countable subgroups are weakly amenable. We also provide a characterization of connected semisimple Lie groups that are weakly amenable. Finally, we show that a connected Lie group is weakly amenable if the group is weakly amenable as a discrete group.
