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

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

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

Operator Algebras of Functions

We present some general theorems about operator algebras that are algebras of functions on sets, including theories of local algebras, residually finite dimensional operator algebras and algebras that can be represented as the scalar multipliers of a vector-valued reproducing kernel Hilbert space. We use these to further develop a quantized function theory for various domains that extends and unifies Agler's theory of commuting contractions and the Arveson-Drury-Popescu theory of commuting row contractions. We obtain analogous factorization theorems, prove that the algebras that we obtain are dual operator algebras and show that for many domains, supremums over all commuting tuples of operators satisfying certain inequalities are obtained over all commuting tuples of matrices.Comment: 33 page

Vector spaces with an order unit

We develop a theory of ordered *-vector spaces with an order unit. We prove fundamental results concerning positive linear functionals and states, and we show that the order (semi)norm on the space of self-adjoint elements admits multiple extensions to an order (semi)norm on the entire space. We single out three of these (semi)norms for further study and discuss their significance for operator algebras and operator systems. In addition, we introduce a functorial method for taking an ordered space with an order unit and forming an Archimedean ordered space. We then use this process to describe an appropriate notion of quotients in the category of Archimedean ordered spaces.Comment: 38 pages, uses XY-pic, Version 2 comments: minor typos corrected.; Version 3 Comments: minor typos corrected; Version 4 Comments: minor typos corrected, hypothesis of Archimedean added to Theorem 4.22, To appear in Indiana Univ. Math.