Idempotent states on locally compact groups and quantum groups

This is a short survey on idempotent states on locally compact groups and locally compact quantum groups. The central topic is the relationship between idempotent states, subgroups and invariant C*-subalgebras. We concentrate on recent results on locally compact quantum groups, but begin with the classical notion of idempotent probability measure. We also consider the `intermediate case of idempotent states in the Fourier--Stieltjes algebra: this is the dual case of idempotent probability measures and so an instance of idempotent states on a locally compact quantum group.

Quasi-actions and rough Cayley graphs for locally compact groups

We define the notion of rough Cayley graph for compactly generated locally compact groups in terms of quasi-actions. We construct such a graph for any compactly generated locally compact group using quasi-lattices and show uniqueness up to quasi-isometry. A class of examples is given by the Cayley graphs of cocompact lattices in compactly generated groups. As an application, we show that a compactly generated group has polynomial growth if and only if its rough Cayley graph has polynomial growth (same for intermediate and exponential growth). Moreover, a unimodular compactly generated group is amenable if and only if its rough Cayley graph is amenable as a metric space.

Subgroups and strictly closed invariant C*-subalgebras

We characterise the strictly closed left invariant C*-subalgebras of the C*-algebra C_b(G) of bounded continuous functions on a locally compact group G. On the dual side, we characterise the strictly closed invariant C*-subalgebras of the multiplier algebra of the reduced group C*-algebra C*_r(G) when G is amenable. In both cases, these C*-subalgebras correspond to closed subgroups of G.

Compact quantum subgroups and left invariant C*-subalgebras of locally compact quantum groups

We show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between compact quantum subgroups of a co-amenable locally compact quantum group $mathbb{G}$ and certain left invariant C*-subalgebras of $C_0(mathbb{G})$. We also prove that every compact quantum subgroup of a co-amenable quantum group is co-amenable. Moreover, there is a one-to-one correspondence between open subgroups of an amenable locally compact group $G$ and non-zero, invariant C*-subalgebras of the group C*-algebra $C^*(G)$.