Approximate identities in Banach function algebras

In this paper, we shall study contractive and pointwise contractive Banach function algebras, in which each maximal modular ideal has a contractive or pointwise contractive approximate identity, respectively, and we shall seek to characterize these algebras. We shall give many examples, including uniform algebras, that distinguish between contractive and pointwise contractive Banach function algebras. We shall describe a contractiveBanach function algebras which is not equivalent to a uniform algebra. We shall also obtain results about Banach sequence algebras and Banach function algebras that are ideals in their second duals

Normed algebras of differentiable functions on compact plane sets

We investigate the completeness and completions of the normed algebras (D(1)(X),∥•∥) for perfect, compact plane sets X. In particular, we construct a radially self-absorbing, compact plane set X such that the normed algebra (D(1)(X),∥•∥) is not complete. This solves a question of Bland and Feinstein. We also prove that there are several classes of connected, compact plane sets X for which the completeness of (D(1)(X),∥•∥) is equivalent to the pointwise regularity of X. For example, this is true for all rectifiably connected, polynomially convex, compact plane sets with empty interior, for all star-shaped, compact plane sets, and for all Jordan arcs in ℂ. In an earlier paper of Bland and Feinstein, the notion of an F-derivative of a function was introduced, where F is a suitable set of rectifiable paths, and with it a new family of Banach algebras D ((1))/F corresponding to the normed algebras (D(1)(X),∥•∥). In the present paper, we obtain stronger results concerning the questions when (D(1)(X),∥•∥) and D ((1))/F (X) are equal, and when the former is dense in the latter. In particular, we show that equality holds whenever X is ‘F-regular'. An example of Bishop shows that the completion of (D(1)(X),∥•∥) need not be semisimple. We show that the completion of (D(1)(X),∥•∥) is semisimple whenever the union of all the rectifiable Jordan arcs in X is dense in X. We prove that the character space of D(1)(X) is equal to X for all perfect, compact plane sets X, whether or not (D(1)(X),∥•∥) is complete. In particular, characters on the normed algebras (D(1)(X),∥•∥) are automatically continuous

Homomorphisms from functional equations: the Goldie equation

The theory of regular variation, in its Karamata and Bojani´c-Karamata/de Haan forms, is long established and makes essential use of the Cauchy functional equation. Both forms are subsumed within the recent theory of Beurling regular variation, developed elsewhere. Various generalizations of the Cauchy equation, including the Gołab–Schinzel functional equation (GS) and Goldie's equation (GBE) below, are prominent there. Here we unify their treatment by algebraicization: extensive use of group structures introduced by Popa and Javor in the 1960s turn all the various (known) solutions into homomorphisms, in fact identifying them 'en passant', and show that (GS) is present everywhere, even if in a thick disguise

Generators of maximal left ideals in Banach algebras

In 1971, Grauert and Remmert proved that a commutative, complex, Noetherian Banach algebra is necessarily finite-dimensional. More precisely, they proved that a commutative, complex Banach algebra has finite dimension over C whenever all the closed ideals in the algebra are (algebraically) finitely generated. In 1974, Sinclair and Tullo obtained a non-commutative version of this result. In 1978, Ferreira and Tomassini improved the result of Grauert and Remmert by showing that the statement is also true if one replaces `closed ideals' by `maximal ideals in the Shilov boundary of A'. We give a shorter proof of this latter result, together with some extensions and related examples. We study the following conjecture. Suppose that all maximal left ideals in a unital Banach algebra A are finitely generated. Then A is finite-dimensional

Second duals of measure algebras

Chapter 2. Locally compact spaces, continuous functions, and measures 1