Let $\mathbb{G}$ be a locally compact quantum group and let $I$ be a closed ideal of $L^{1}(\mathbb{G})$ with $y|_{I}\neq 0$ for some $y\in \text{sp}(L^{1}(\mathbb{G}))$. In this paper, we give a characterization for compactness of $\mathbb{G}$ in terms of the existence of a weakly compact left or right multiplier $T$ on $I$ with $T(f)(y|_{I})\neq 0$ for some $f\in I$. Using this, we prove that $I$ is an ideal in its second dual if and only if $\mathbb{G}$ is compact. We also study Arens regularity of $I$ whenever it has a bounded left approximate identity. Finally, we obtain some characterizations for amenability of $\mathbb{G}$ in terms of the existence of some $I$-module homomorphisms on $I^{\ast \ast }$ and on $I^{\ast }$.

We study the second dual algebra of a Banach algebra and related problems. We resolve some questions raised by Ülger, which are related to Arens products. We then discuss a question of Gulick on the radical of the second dual algebra of the group algebra of a discrete abelian group and give an application of Arens regularity to Fourier and Fourier–Stieltjes transforms.

We characterize two important notions of amenability and compactness of a locally compact quantum group $\mathbb{G}$ in terms of certain homological properties. For this, we show that $\mathbb{G}$ is character amenable if and only if it is both amenable and co-amenable. We finally apply our results to Arens regularity problems of the quantum group algebra ${{L}^{1}}\left( \mathbb{G} \right)$. In particular, we improve an interesting result by Hu, Neufang, and Ruan.

Given a morphism T from a Banach algebra ℬ to a commutative Banach algebra 𝒜, a multiplication is defined on the Cartesian product space 𝒜×ℬ perturbing the coordinatewise product resulting in a new Banach algebra 𝒜×Tℬ. The Arens regularity as well as amenability (together with its various avatars) of 𝒜×Tℬ are shown to be stable with respect to T.