Approximate Amenability of Certain Semigroup Algebras

In the present paper, it is shown that a left cancellative semigroup S (not necessarily with identity) is left amenable whenever the Banach algebra ℓ¹(S) is approximately amenable. It is also proved that if S is a Brandt semigroup over a group G with an index set I, then ℓ¹(S) is approximately amenable if and only if G is amenable. Moreover ℓ¹(S) is amenable if and only if G is amenable and I is finite. For a left cancellative foundation semigroup S with an identity such that for every M_a(S)-measurable subset B of S and s ∈ S the set sB is M_a(S)-measurable, it is proved that if the measure algebra M_a(S) is approximately amenable, then S is left amenable. Concrete examples are given to show that the converse is negative.