Dual spaces and translation invariant means on group von Neumann algebras (Q2921799)

Let \(G\) be a locally compact group. Granirer and Rudin proved independently in the early 1970s that if \(G\) is amenable as discrete, then \(G\) is discrete if and only if all the invariant means on \(L^{\infty}(G)\) are topologically invariant. Let \(G^*\) be the dual space of \(G\), i.e. the set of all extreme points of the set of all continuous positive definite functions on \(G\) with norm one. In this paper, the author defines and studies the \(G^*\)-translation invariant operators on \(VN(G)\) and investigates the existence of \(G^*\)-translation invariant means on \(VN(G)\) which are not topologically invariant. It is proved that the Granirer-Rudin's result does not hold in general, but this theorem can be generalized under certain assumptions. Characterizations of compact groups, abelian groups and discrete groups in terms of their dual spaces \(G^*\) are provided in this paper. The author proves a restriction theorem for generalized translation invariant means on \(VN(G)\) and applies this restriction theorem to answer a question in representation theory.