Syndetic Sets and Amenability

We prove that if an infinite, discrete semigroup has the property that every right syndetic set is left syndetic, then the semigroup has a left invariant mean. We prove that the weak*-closed convex hull of the two-sided translates of every bounded function on an infinite discrete semigroup contains a constant function. Our proofs use the algebraic properties of the Stone-Cech compactification

Equivariant Maps and Bimodule Projections

We construct a contractive, idempotent, MASA bimodule map on B(H), whose range is not a ternary subalgebra of B(H). Our method uses a crossed-product to reduce the existence of such an idempotent map to an analogous problem about the ranges of idempotent maps that are equivariant with respect to a group action and Hamana's theory of G-injective envelopes.Comment: 15 page

A Dynamical Systems Approach to the Kadison-Singer Problem

In these notes we develop a link between the Kadison-Singer problem and questions about certain dynamical systems. We conjecture that whether or not a given state has a unique extension is related to certain dynamical properties of the state. We prove that if any state corresponding to a minimal idempotent point extends uniquely to the von Neumann algebra of the group, then every state extends uniquely to the von Neumann algebra of the group. We prove that if any state arising in the Kadsion-Singer problem has a unique extension, then the injective envelope of a C*-crossed product algebra associated with the state necessarily contains the full von Neumann algebra of the group. We prove that this latter property holds for states arising from rare ultrafilters and $\delta$-stable ultrafilters, independent, of the group action and also for states corresponding to non-recurrent points in the corona of the group.Comment: Typos corrected, comments and references adde

Complete positivity of the map from a basis to its dual basis

The dual of a matrix ordered space has a natural matrix ordering that makes the dual space matrix ordered as well. The purpose of these notes is to give a condition that describes when the linear map taking a basis of the n by n matrices to its dual basis is a complete order isomorphism and complete co-order isomorphism. In the case of the standard matrix units this map is a complete order isomorphism and this is a restatement of the correspondence between completely positive maps and the Choi matrix. However, we exhibit natural orthonormal bases for the matrices such that this map is an order isomorphism, but not a complete order isomorphism. Some bases yield complete co-order isomorphisms. Included among such bases is the Pauli basis and tensor products of the Pauli basis. Consequently, when the Pauli basis is used in place of the the matrix unit basis, the analogue of Choi's theorem is a characterization of completely co-positive maps