Amenable semigroups and nonexpansive dynamical systems

Abstract

We characterize amenability of subspaces of $C(S)$, where $S$ is a semitopological semigroup, in terms of fixed point properties of nonexpansive actions. In particular, we give a complete characterization of a semitopological semigroup with a left invariant mean on WAP(S) that answers a question of A.T.-M. Lau and Y. Zhang in the affirmative. We also propose a new approach to Lau's problem concerning a counterpart of Day-Mitchell's characterization of amenable semigroups and show some partial results, in the case of weak$^{\ast }$ compact convex sets with the Radon-Nikod\'{y}m property, and in the duals of $M$-embedded Banach spaces.