Algebras associated with invariant means on the subnormal subgroups of an amenable group

Let G be an amenable group. We define and study an algebra ${\mathcal{A}}_{sn}(G)$, which is related to invariant means on the subnormal subgroups of G. For a just infinite amenable group G, we show that ${\mathcal{A}}_{sn}(G)$ is nilpotent if and only if G is not a branch group, and in the case that it is nilpotent we determine the index of nilpotence. We next study $\textrm{rad}\, \ell^1(G)^{**}$ for an amenable branch group G and show that it always contains nilpotent left ideals of arbitrarily large index, as well as non-nilpotent elements. This provides infinitely many finitely generated counterexamples to a question of Dales and Lau [4], first resolved by the author in [10], which asks whether we always have $(\textrm{rad}\, \ell^1(G)^{**})^{\Box 2} = \{0 \}$. We further study this question by showing that $(\textrm{rad}\, \ell^1(G)^{**})^{\Box 2} = \{0 \}$ imposes certain structural constraints on the group G.

A BIJECTION OF INVARIANT MEANS ON AN AMENABLE GROUP WITH THOSE ON A LATTICE SUBGROUP

Suppose G is an amenable locally compact group with lattice subgroup $\Gamma $ . Grosvenor [‘A relation between invariant means on Lie groups and invariant means on their discrete subgroups’, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.288(2) (1985), 813–825] showed that there is a natural affine injection $\iota : {\text {LIM}}(\Gamma )\to {\text {TLIM}}(G)$ and that $\iota $ is a surjection essentially in the case $G={\mathbb R}^d$ , $\Gamma ={\mathbb Z}^d$ . In the present paper it is shown that $\iota $ is a surjection if and only if $G/\Gamma $ is compact.

Invariant Means, Complementary Averages of Means, and a Characterization of the Beta-Type Means

We prove that whenever the selfmapping (M1,…,Mp):Ip→Ip, (p∈N and Mi-s are p-variable means on the interval I) is invariant with respect to some continuous and strictly monotone mean K:Ip→I then for every nonempty subset S⊆{1,…,p} there exists a uniquely determined mean KS:Ip→I such that the mean-type mapping (N1,…,Np):Ip→Ip is K-invariant, where Ni:=KS for i∈S and Ni:=Mi otherwise. Moreover min(Mi:i∈S)≤KS≤max(Mi:i∈S). Later we use this result to: (1) construct a broad family of K-invariant mean-type mappings, (2) solve functional equations of invariant-type, and (3) characterize Beta-type means.