Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 June 2021
We establish several new characterizations of amenable $W^*$- and
$C^*$-dynamical systems over arbitrary locally compact groups. In the
$W^*$-setting we show that amenability is equivalent to (1) a Reiter property and (2) the existence of a certain net of completely positive Herz–Schur multipliers of
$(M,G,\alpha )$ converging point weak* to the identity of
$G\bar {\ltimes }M$. In the
$C^*$-setting, we prove that amenability of
$(A,G,\alpha )$ is equivalent to an analogous Herz–Schur multiplier approximation of the identity of the reduced crossed product
$G\ltimes A$, as well as a particular case of the positive weak approximation property of Bédos and Conti [On discrete twisted
$C^*$-dynamical systems, Hilbert
$C^*$-modules and regularity. Münster J. Math. 5 (2012), 183–208] (generalized to the locally compact setting). When
$Z(A^{**})=Z(A)^{**}$, it follows that amenability is equivalent to the 1-positive approximation property of Exel and Ng [Approximation property of
$C^*$-algebraic bundles. Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 132(3) (2002), 509–522]. In particular, when
$A=C_0(X)$ is commutative, amenability of
$(C_0(X),G,\alpha )$ coincides with topological amenability of the G-space
$(G,X)$.