Preduals of semigroup algebras

For a locally compact group G, the measure convolution algebra M(G) carries a natural coproduct. In previous work, we showed that the canonical predual C 0(G) of M(G) is the unique predual which makes both the product and the coproduct on M(G) weak*-continuous. Given a discrete semigroup S, the convolution algebra ℓ 1(S) also carries a coproduct. In this paper we examine preduals for ℓ 1(S) making both the product and the coproduct weak*-continuous. Under certain conditions on S, we show that ℓ 1(S) has a unique such predual. Such S include the free semigroup on finitely many generators. In general, however, this need not be the case even for quite simple semigroups and we construct uncountably many such preduals on ℓ 1(S) when S is either ℤ+×ℤ or (ℕ,⋅)