In mathematics, a Følner sequence for a group is a sequence of sets satisfying a particular condition. If a group has a Følner sequence with respect to its action on itself, the group is amenable. A more general notion of Følner nets can be defined analogously, and is suited for the study of uncountable groups. Følner sequences are named for Erling Følner. Definition Given a group that acts on a countable set , a Følner sequence for the action is a sequence of finite subsets of which exhaust and which "don't move too much" when acted on by any group element. Precisely, For every , there exists some such that for all , and for all group elements in . Explanation of the notation used above: is the result of the set being acted on the left by . It consists of elements of the form for all in . is the symmetric difference operator, i.e., is the set of elements in exactly one of the sets and . is the cardinality of a set . Thus, what this definition says is that for any group element , the proportion of elements of that are moved away by goes to 0 as gets large. In the setting of a locally compact group acting on a measure space there is a more general definition. Instead of being finite, the sets are required to have finite, non-zero measure, and so the Følner requirement will be that , analogously to the discrete case. The standard case is that of the group acting on itself by left translation, in which case the measure in question is normally assumed to be the Haar measure. Examples Any finite group trivially has a Følner sequence for each . Consider the group of integers, acting on itself by addition. Let consist of the integers between and . Then consists of integers between and . For large , the symmetric difference has size , while has size . The resulting ratio is , which goes to 0 as gets large. With the original definition of Følner sequence, a group has a Følner sequence if and only if it is countable and amenable. A locally compact group has a Følner sequence (with the generalized definition) if and only if it is amenable and second countable. Proof of amenability We have a group and a Følner sequence , and we need