We give a new perspective on the homological characterisations of amenability given by Johnson in the context of bounded cohomology and by Block and Weinberger in the context of uniformly finite homology. We examine the interaction between their theories and explain the relationship between these characterisations. We apply these ideas to give a new proof of non- vanishing for the bounded cohomology of a free group.
Johnsons characterization of amenable groups states that a discrete group $Gamma$ is amenable if and only if $H_b^{n geq 1}(Gamma; V) = 0$ for all dual normed $mathbb{R}[Gamma]$-modules $V$. In this paper, we extend the previous result to homomorphisms by proving the converse of the Mapping Theorem: a surjective homomorphism $phi colon Gamma to K$ has amenable kernel $H$ if and only if the induced inflation map $H^bullet_b(K; V^H) to H^bullet_b(Gamma; V)$ is an isometric isomorphism for every dual normed $mathbb{R}[Gamma]$-module $V$. In addition, we obtain an analogous characterization for the (smaller) class of surjective homomorphisms $phi colon Gamma to K$ with the property that the inflation maps in bounded cohomology are isometric isomorphisms for all normed $mathbb{R}[Gamma]$-modules. Finally, we also prove a characterization of the (larger) class of boundedly acyclic homomorphisms $phi colon Gamma to K$, for which the restriction maps in bounded cohomology $H^bullet_b(K; V) to H^bullet_b(Gamma; phi^{-1}V)$ are isomorphisms for suitable dual normed $mathbb{R}[K]$-module $V$. We then extend the first and third results to spaces and obtain characterizations of amenable maps and boundedly acyclic maps in terms of the vanishing of the bounded cohomology of their homotopy fibers with respect to appropriate choices of coefficients.
Given a group acting on a Gromov hyperbolic space, Bestvina and Fujiwara introduced the WPD property --- weak proper discontinuity --- for studying the 2nd bounded cohomology of the group. We carry out a more general study of second bounded cohomology using a really weak property discontinuity property known as WWPD that was introduced by Bestvina, Bromberg, and Fujiwara.
We show that topological amenability of an action of a countable discrete group on a compact space is equivalent to the existence of an invariant mean for the action. We prove also that this is equivalent to vanishing of bounded cohomology for a class of Banach G-modules associated to the action, as well as to vanishing of a specific cohomology class. In the case when the compact space is a point our result reduces to a classic theorem of B.E. Johnson characterising amenability of groups. In the case when the compact space is the Stone-v{C}ech compactification of the group we obtain a cohomological characterisation of exactness for the group, answering a question of Higson.
Using a probabilistic argument we show that the second bounded cohomology of an acylindrically hyperbolic group $G$ (e.g., a non-elementary hyperbolic or relatively hyperbolic group, non-exceptional mapping class group, ${rm Out}(F_n)$, dots) embeds via the natural restriction maps into the inverse limit of the second bounded cohomologies of its virtually free subgroups, and in fact even into the inverse limit of the second bounded cohomologies of its hyperbolically embedded virtually free subgroups. This result is new and non-trivial even in the case where $G$ is a (non-free) hyperbolic group. The corresponding statement fails in general for the third bounded cohomology, even for surface groups.
This paper is devoted to the computation of the space $H_b^2(Gamma,H;mathbb{R})$, where $Gamma$ is a free group of finite rank $ngeq 2$ and $H$ is a subgroup of finite rank. More precisely we prove that $H$ has infinite index in $Gamma$ if and only if $H_b^2(Gamma,H;mathbb{R})$ is not trivial, and furthermore, if and only if there is an isometric embedding $oplus_infty^nmathcal{D}(mathbb{Z})hookrightarrow H_b^2(Gamma,H;mathbb{R})$, where $mathcal{D}(mathbb{Z})$ is the space of bounded alternating functions on $mathbb{Z}$ equipped with the defect norm.