Pseudo-amenability and pseudo-contractibility of restricted semigroup algebra (Q2328077)

\textit{B. E. Johnson} introduced the notion of amenability in Banach algebras in [Cohomology in Banach algebras. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (1972; Zbl 0256.18014)]. In [Am. J. Math. 94, 685--698 (1972; Zbl 0246.46040)], \textit{B. E. Johnson} characterized amenability in terms of a bounded approximate diagonal, by proving that $A$ is amenable if and only if $A$ has a bounded approximate diagonal, i.e., a bounded net $(m_{\alpha})_{\alpha}$ in $A\hat{\otimes}A$ such that $$a\cdot m_{\alpha} - m_{\alpha}\cdot a \rightarrow 0 \quad (a\in A),$$ and $$a\cdot\pi( m_{\alpha}) \rightarrow a \quad (a\in A),$$ where $\pi:A\hat{\otimes}A\rightarrow A$, defined by $\pi(a\otimes b) = ab$ $(a,b\in A)$ is the multiplication map. \textit{F. Ghahramani} and \textit{Y. Zhang} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 142, No. 1, 111--123 (2007; Zbl 1118.46046)] weakened this characterization of amenability to obtain the notions of pseudo-amenability (by requiring that the approximate diagonal is not necessarily bounded) and pseudo-contractibility. $A$ is pseudo-contractible if $$a\cdot m_{\alpha} = m_{\alpha}\cdot a \quad (a\in A),$$ and $$a\cdot\pi( m_{\alpha}) \rightarrow a \quad (a\in A).$$ Motivated by the works in the above papers and as a continuation of several results in this direction, the authors of the paper under review study the notions of pseudo-amenability and pseudo-contractibility for restricted semigroup algebras and semigroup algebras on restricted semigroups. The authors obtain some general results in Section 3 and results on restricted semigroup algebras and semigroup algebras over restricted semigroups in Section 4. In particular, for a Brandt semigroup $S$, the authors show that the pseudo-amenability of $l^{1}(S_{r})$ is equivalent to its pseudo-contractibility, where $S_r$ denotes the restricted semigroup of $S$, see Proposition 4.15.