Let $\mathbb{L}$ be a length function on a group $G$, and let ${{M}_{\mathbb{L}}}$ denote the operator of pointwise multiplication by $\mathbb{L}$ on ${{\ell }^{2}}\left( G \right)$. Following Connes, ${{M}_{\mathbb{L}}}$ can be used as a “Dirac” operator for the reduced group ${{C}^{*}}$-algebra $C_{r}^{*}\left( G \right)$. It defines a Lipschitz seminorm on $C_{r}^{*}\left( G \right)$, which defines a metric on the state space of $C_{r}^{*}\left( G \right)$. We show that for any length function satisfying a strong form of polynomial growth on a discrete group, the topology from this metric coincides with the weak-$*$ topology (a key property for the definition of a “compact quantum metric space”). In particular, this holds for all word-length functions on finitely generated nilpotent-by-finite groups.

If a locally compact group G acts on a C*-algebra B, we have both full and reduced crossed products and each has a coaction of G. We investigate ‘exotic’ coactions in between the two, which are determined by certain ideals E of the Fourier–Stieltjes algebra B(G); an approach that is inspired by recent work of Brown and Guentner on new C*-group algebra completions. We actually carry out the bulk of our investigation in the general context of coactions on a C*-algebra A. Buss and Echterhoff have shown that not every coaction comes from one of these ideals, but nevertheless the ideals do generate a wide array of exotic coactions. Coactions determined by these ideals E satisfy a certain ‘E-crossed product duality’, intermediate between full and reduced duality. We give partial results concerning exotic coactions with the ultimate goal being a classification of which coactions are determined by ideals of B(G).

We analyse Hecke pairs (G,H) and the associated Hecke algebra when G is a semi-direct product N ⋊ Q and H = M ⋊ R for subgroups M ⊂ N and R ⊂ Q with M normal in N. Our main result shows that, when (G,H) coincides with its Schlichting completion and R is normal in Q, the closure of in C*(G) is Morita–Rieffel equivalent to a crossed product I⋊βQ/R, where I is a certain ideal in the fixed-point algebra C*(N)R. Several concrete examples are given illustrating and applying our techniques, including some involving subgroups of GL(2,K) acting on K2, where K = ℚ or K = ℤ[p−1]. In particular we look at the ax + b group of a quadratic extension of K.

The Hecke algebra of a Hecke pair (G, H) is studied using the Schlichting completion (Ḡ, ), which is a Hecke pair whose Hecke algebra is isomorphic to and which is topologized so that is a compact open subgroup of Ḡ. In particular, the representation theory and C*-completions of are addressed in terms of the projection using both Fell's and Rieffel's imprimitivity theorems and the identity . An extended analysis of the case where H is contained in a normal subgroup of G (and in particular the case where G is a semi-direct product) is carried out, and several specific examples are analysed using this approach.