Probability measures on almost connected amenable locally compact groups and some related ideals in group algebras (Q5954261)

Let \(G\) be a locally compact group, \(\mu\) be a probability measure on \(G\) absolutely continuous with respect to the Haar measure. The \(L^1\)-closure \(J_\mu\) of the set \(\{ \varphi - \varphi *\mu : \varphi \in L^1(G)\}\) is a left ideal in the group algebra \(L^1(G)\). The set \(I_a(G)\) of all ideals \(J_\mu\) is naturally ordered by inclusion. The author shows that, for a connected amenable group \(G\), every nonempty family of ideals from \(I_a(G)\) has a maximal element and a minimal element; in particular, every ideal in \(I_a(G)\) contains an ideal which is minimal in \(I_a(G)\). Every chain in \(I_a(G)\) is necessarily finite. A generalization to a more general class of almost connected amenable groups is discussed. The techniques involve results from the theory of boundaries of random walks.