Variations on a theme of Carathéodory
Let 𝓐 be a Banach algebra and let ℳ be a W*-algebra. For a homomorphism Φ from 𝓐 into ℳ, we introduce and study ℳ -valued invariant Φ-means on the space of bounded linear maps from 𝓐 into ℳ. We establish several characterizations of existence of an ℳ -valued invariant Φ-mean on B(𝓐,ℳ). We also study the relation between existence of an ℳ -valued invariant Φ-mean on B(𝓐,ℳ) and amenability of 𝓐. Finally, for a character ϕ of 𝓐, we give some descriptions for ϕ-amenability of 𝓐 in terms of ℳ...