Amenability and vanishing of L2-Betti numbers: An operator algebraic approach

We introduce a Folner condition for dense subalgebras in finite von Neumann algebras and prove that it implies dimension flatness of the inclusion in question. It is furthermore proved that the Folner condition naturally generalizes the existing notions of amenability and that the ambient von Neumann algebra of a Folner algebra is automatically injective. As an application, we show how our techniques unify previously known results concerning vanishing of L-2-Betti numbers for amenable groups, quantum groups and groupoids and moreover provide a large class of new examples of algebras with vanishing L2-Betti numbers. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.