The rank of finitely generated modules over group algebras

We show the existence of a rank function on finitely generated modules over group algebras , where is an arbitrary field and is a finitely generated amenable group. This extends a result of W. Lück (1998).

     

Sumset phenomenon in countable amenable groups

Jin proved that whenever A and B are sets of positive upper density in Z, A+B is piecewise syndetic. Jin's theorem was subsequently generalized by Jin and Keisler to a certain family of abelian groups, which in particular contains Zd. Answering a question of Jin and Keisler, we show that this result can be extended to countable amenable groups. Moreover we establish that such sumsets (or — depending on the notation — “product sets”) are piecewise Bohr, a result which for G=Z was proved by Bergelson, Furstenberg and Weiss. In the case of an abelian group G, we show that a set is piecewise Bohr if and only if it contains a sumset of two sets of positive upper Banach density.     

Isoperimetry of group actions

The isoperimetric profile of a discrete group was introduced by Vershik, however it is well defined only for a restrictive class amenable groups. We generalize the notion of isoperimetric profile beyond the world of amenable groups by defining isoperimetric profiles of amenable actions of finitely generated groups on compact topological spaces. This allows to extend the definition of the isoperimetric profile to all groups which are exact in such a way that for amenable groups it is equal to Vershik's isoperimetric profile. The main feature of our construction is that it preserves many of the properties known from the classical case. We use these results to compute exact asymptotics of the isoperimetric profiles for several classes of non-amenable groups.     

Strongly amenable semigroups and nonlinear fixed point properties

A semi-topological semigroup is strongly left amenable if there is a compact left ideal group in the spectrum of its LUC-compactification. In this paper, we want to study those objects, and study some fixed point property related to non-expansive mapping and other similar kind of mapping.     

Crossed-products extensions,of Lp-bounds for amenable actions

We will extend earlier transference results due to Neuwirth and Ricard from the context of noncommutative $L_p$-spaces associated with amenable groups to that of noncommutative $L_p$-spaces associated with crossed-products of amenable actions. Namely, if $m:G\to \mathbb{C}$ is a completely bounded Fourier multiplier on $L_p$, then it extends to the crossed-product with similar bounds provided that the action θ is amenable and trace-preserving. Furthermore, our construction also allows to extend G-equivariant completely bounded operators acting on the space part to the crossed-product provided that the generalized Følner sets of the action θ satisfy certain accretivity property. As a corollary we obtain stability results for maximal $L_p$-bounds over crossed products. We derive, using that stability results, an application to the boundedness of smooth multipliers in the $L_p$-spaces of group algebras.     

Homological properties of modules over semigroup algebras

Let S be a semigroup. In this paper we investigate the injectivity of ?¹(S) as a Banach right module over ?¹(S). For weakly cancellative S this is the same as studying the flatness of the predual left module c₀(S). For such semigroups S, we also investigate the projectivity of c₀(S). We prove that for many semigroups S for which the Banach algebra ?¹(S) is non-amenable, the ?¹(S)-module ?¹(S) is not injective. The main result about the projectivity of c₀(S) states that for a weakly cancellative inverse semigroup S, c₀(S) is projective if and only if S is finite.     

On amenability of two-generator groups

A discrete group G is amenable if there exists a finitely additive probability measure on G which is invariant under left translations and is defined on all subsets of G. It is proved that if the group is generated by two elements and is amenable then there are words being relators whose most of the consecutive pairs of the letters belong to a certain four-element set of pairs. This fact is applied to reproving non-amenability of a braid group. The same group provides an example showing that such type of condition is not su?cient for amenabilty.     

Amenable representations and finite injective von Neumann algebras

Let be the unitary group of a finite, injective von Neumann algebra . We observe that any subrepresentation of a group representation into is amenable in the sense of Bekka; this yields short proofs of two known results-one by Robertson, one by Haagerup-concerning group representations into .

     

A short proof of the Approximation Conjecture for amenable groups

We give a short proof of the Approximation Conjecture with complex coefficients for amenable groups [G. Elek, The Strong Approximation Conjecture holds for amenable groups, J. Funct. Anal. 239 (1) (2006) 345–355].