The Dixmier problem, lamplighters and Burnside groups (Q1048161)

A problem of Dixmier (1950) reads as follows: is it true that every non-amenable group admits uniformly bounded representations that cannot be unitarised? Passing to extensions by abelian groups, the authors provide such representations. This gives a new characterization of amenability. The obtained result led the authors to a partial answer to a question of Pisier of whether free Burnside groups are unitarisable.