Amenability and paradoxicality in semigroups and \(C^\ast\)-algebras (Q2173036)

Since its inception by von Neumann, the concept of an amenable group has become ubiquituous in modern mathematics, which is demonstrated by the large number of different characterisations. When passing to more general structures, many of these characterisations lead to different concepts, or at least need to be modified appropriately. In this article, the authors undertake a study of various different notions of amenability for the class of inverse semigroups. In the first instance, the authors show that there is a suitable notion of amenability in terms of existence of certain probability measures on the semigroup, which they call domain measurability. It is shown that this notion can be characterized in terms of a Følner-type condition, and by the absence of paradoxical decompositions. In a second step, the authors introduce a Roe-type \(C^*\)-algebra, denoted by \(\mathcal{R}_S\), associated with an inverse semigroup \(S\) (or, more generally, any representation of an inverse semigroup as partial translations of some set). Inspired by work in the group case [\textit{M. Rørdam} and \textit{A. Sierakowski}, Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 32, No. 1, 273--293 (2012; Zbl 1252.46061)] and for metric spaces [\textit{P. Ara} et al., J. Math. Anal. Appl. 459, No. 2, 686--716 (2018; Zbl 1393.46038)], it is shown that domain measurability of \(S\) can equivalently be described by the existence of an amenable trace on \(\mathcal{R}_S\) and that the absence of paradoxical decompositions corresponds to the Roe algebra \(\mathcal{R}_S\) not being properly infinite. Finally, the authors consider the relation of amenability of \(S\) and quasidiagonality of the \(C^*\)-algebra \(C_r^*(S)\) generated by the left regular representation of \(S\).