Amenability of semigroups and common multiples in \ell^1_+

Abstract: In this note, we prove that a semigroup

S

is left amenable if and only if every two nonzero elements of

e l l_{+}^{1} (S)

have a common nonzero right multiple, where

e l l_{+}^{1} (S)

is the positive part of the Banach algebra

e l l^{1} (S)

, or equivalently the semiring of finite measures on

S

. This characterization of amenability is new even for groups.

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