Let $G$ be a locally compact group. In this paper, we show that if $G$ is a nondiscrete locally compact group, $p\in (0, 1)$ and $q\in (0, + \infty ] $, then $\{ (f, g)\in {L}^{p} (G)\times {L}^{q} (G): f\ast g\text{ is finite } \lambda \text{-a.e.} \} $ is a set of first category in ${L}^{p} (G)\times {L}^{q} (G)$. We also show that if $G$ is a nondiscrete locally compact group and $p, q, r\in [1, + \infty ] $ such that $1/ p+ 1/ q\gt 1+ 1/ r$, then $\{ (f, g)\in {L}^{p} (G)\times {L}^{q} (G): f\ast g\in {L}^{r} (G)\} $, is a set of first category in ${L}^{p} (G)\times {L}^{q} (G)$. Consequently, for $p, q\in [1+ \infty )$ and $r\in [1, + \infty ] $ with $1/ p+ 1/ q\gt 1+ 1/ r$, $G$ is discrete if and only if ${L}^{p} (G)\ast {L}^{q} (G)\subseteq {L}^{r} (G)$; this answers a question raised by Saeki [‘The ${L}^{p} $-conjecture and Young’s inequality’, Illinois J. Math. 34 (1990), 615–627].

We construct a two-parameter family of actions ωk,a of the Lie algebra 𝔰𝔩(2,ℝ) by differential–difference operators on ℝN∖{0}. Here k is a multiplicity function for the Dunkl operators, and a>0 arises from the interpolation of the two 𝔰𝔩(2,ℝ) actions on the Weil representation of Mp(N,ℝ) and the minimal unitary representation of O(N+1,2). We prove that this action ωk,a lifts to a unitary representation of the universal covering of SL (2,ℝ) , and can even be extended to a holomorphic semigroup Ωk,a. In the k≡0case, our semigroup generalizes the Hermite semigroup studied by R. Howe (a=2)and the Laguerre semigroup studied by the second author with G. Mano (a=1) . One boundary value of our semigroup Ωk,a provides us with (k,a) -generalized Fourier transforms ℱk,a, which include the Dunkl transform 𝒟k (a=2)and a new unitary operator ℋk  (a=1) , namely a Dunkl–Hankel transform. We establish the inversion formula, a generalization of the Plancherel theorem, the Hecke identity, the Bochner identity, and a Heisenberg uncertainty relation for ℱk,a. We also find kernel functions for Ωk,a and ℱk,a for a=1,2in terms of Bessel functions and the Dunkl intertwining operator.

Let G be a locally compact group and H be a compact subgroup of G. Using a general criterion established by Neufang [‘A unified approach to the topological centre problem for certain Banach algebras arising in abstract harmonic analysis’, Arch. Math.82(2) (2004), 164–171], we show that the Banach algebra L1(G/H) is strongly Arens irregular for a large class of locally compact groups.

For a locally compact group G and an arbitrary subset J of [1,∞], we introduce ILJ(G) as a subspace of ⋂ p∈JLp(G) with some norm to make it a Banach space. Then, for some special choice of J, we investigate some topological and algebraic properties of ILJ(G) as a Banach algebra under a convolution product.

In this paper we give a necessary and sufficient condition under which the answer to the open problem raised by Ghahramani and Lau (‘Multipliers and modulus on Banach algebras related to locally compact groups’, J. Funct. Anal. 150 (1997), 478–497) is positive.

We study reflexivity and structural properties of operator algebras generated by representations of the discrete Heisenberg semigroup. We show that the left regular representation of this semigroup gives rise to a semi-simple reflexive algebra. We exhibit an example of a representation that gives rise to a non-reflexive algebra. En route, we establish reflexivity results for subspaces of .

For a Banach algebra 𝒜 and a character ϕ on 𝒜, we introduce and study the notion of essential ϕ-amenability of 𝒜. We give some examples to show that the class of essentially ϕ-amenable Banach algebras is larger than that of ϕ-amenable Banach algebras introduced by Kaniuth et al. [‘On ϕ-amenability of Banach algebras’, Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc.144 (2008), 85–96]. Finally, we characterize the essential ϕ-amenability of various Banach algebras related to locally compact groups.

Let X be a locally compact space, and 𝔏∞0(X,ι) be the space of all essentially bounded ι-measurable functions f on X vanishing at infinity. We introduce and study a locally convex topology β1(X,ι) on the Lebesgue space 𝔏1(X,ι) such that the strong dual of (𝔏1(X,ι),β1(X,ι)) can be identified with . Next, by showing that β1(X,ι)can be considered as a natural mixed topology, we deduce some of its basic properties. Finally, as an application, we prove that L1 (G) , the group algebra of a locally compact Hausdorff topological group G, equipped with the convolution multiplication is a complete semitopological algebra under the β1 (G)topology.

Let Δ be an affine building of type and let 𝔸 be its fundamental apartment. We consider the set 𝕌0 of vertices of type 0 of 𝔸 and prove that the Hecke algebra of all W0-invariant difference operators with constant coefficients acting on 𝕌0 has three generators. This property leads us to define three Laplace operators on vertices of type 0 of Δ. We prove that there exists a joint eigenspace of these operators having dimension greater than ∣W0 ∣. This implies that there exist joint eigenfunctions of the Laplacians that cannot be expressed, via the Poisson transform, in terms of a finitely additive measure on the maximal boundary Ω of Δ.

For a locally compact group G, let LUC(G) denote the space of all left uniformly continuous functions on G. Here, we investigate projectivity, injectivity and flatness of LUC(G) and its dual space LUC(G)* as Banach left modules over the group algebra as well as the measure algebra of G.

Homological properties of several Banach left L1(G)-modules have been studied by Dales and Polyakov and recently by Ramsden. In this paper, we characterize some homological properties of and as Banach left L1(G)-modules, such as flatness, injectivity and projectivity.

Let G/K be a noncompact symmetric space, Gc/K its compact dual, 𝔤=𝔨⊕𝔭 the Cartan decomposition of the Lie algebra 𝔤 of G, 𝔞 a maximal abelian subspace of 𝔭, H be an element of 𝔞, a=exp (H) , and ac =exp (iH) . In this paper, we prove that if for some positive integer r, νrac is absolutely continuous with respect to the Haar measure on Gc, then νra is absolutely continuous with respect to the left Haar measure on G, where νac (respectively νa) is the K-bi-invariant orbital measure supported on the double coset KacK (respectively KaK). We also generalize a result of Gupta and Hare [‘Singular dichotomy for orbital measures on complex groups’, Boll. Unione Mat. Ital. (9) III (2010), 409–419] to general noncompact symmetric spaces and transfer many of their results from compact symmetric spaces to their dual noncompact symmetric spaces.

According to the Skitovich–Darmois theorem, the independence of two linear forms of n independent random variables implies that the random variables are Gaussian. We consider the case where independent random variables take values in a second countable locally compact abelian group X, and coefficients of the forms are topological automorphisms of X. We describe a wide class of groups X for which a group-theoretic analogue of the Skitovich–Darmois theorem holds true when n=2.

There is an error in one of the major results in our original paper ‘Equivalent weights and standard homomorphisms for convolution algebras on ℝ+’. We describe the error and give a counterexample to the result as stated. We then give a substitute result which is in many ways stronger than the erroneous result. We will also indicate what changes need to be made in the original paper to accommodate the replacement of the erroneous result by the substitute.

We study when certain properties of Banach algebras are stable under ultrapower constructions. In particular, we consider when every ultrapower of is Arens regular, and give some evidence that this is so if and only if is isomorphic to a closed subalgebra of operators on a super-reflexive Banach space. We show that such ideas are closely related to whether one can sensibly define an ultrapower of a dual Banach algebraffi We study how tensor products of ultrapowers behave, and apply this to study the question of when every ultrapower of is amenable. We provide an abstract characterization in terms of something like an approximate diagonal, and consider when every ultrapower of a C*-algebra, or a group L1-convolution algebra, is amenable.

We take a second look at two basic topics in the study of weighted convolution algebras L1(ω) on ℝ+. An early result showed that one could replace the weight $\omega$ with a very well-behaved weight without changing the space L1(ω) as long as L1(ω) was an algebraffi We prove the analogous result for measure algebras when M(ω) is an algebraffi This allows us to preserve not only the norm topology but also the relative weak* topology on L1(ω). A homomorphism between weighted convolution algebras is said to be standard if it preserves generators of dense principal ideals. The original proofs of standardness and its variants are all based on finding the generator of a particular strongly continuous convolution semigroup. In this paper we give much simpler direct proofs of these results. We also improve the statement and proof of the theorem, giving useful properties equivalent to the standardness of a homomorphism.

We prove that in any compact symmetric space, G/K, there is a dense set of a1,a2∈G such that if μj=mK*δaj*mk is the K-bi-invariant measure supported on KajK, then μ1*μ2 is absolutely continuous with respect to Haar measure on G. Moreover, the product of double cosets, Ka1Ka2K, has nonempty interior in G.

We deal with the dual Banach algebras for a locally compact group G. We investigate compact left multipliers on , and prove that the existence of a compact left multiplier on is equivalent to compactness of G. We also describe some classes of left completely continuous elements in .

A number of well-known results of Ghahramani and Loy on the essential amenability of Banach algebras are generalized. It is proved that a symmetric abstract Segal algebra with respect to an amenable Banach algebra is essentially amenable. Applications to locally compact groups are given.

We compute the spherical functions on the symmetric space Sp2n/Spn×Spn and derive a Plancherel formula for functions on the symmetric space. As an application of the Plancherel formula, we prove an identity which amounts to the fundamental lemma of a relative trace identity between Sp2n and .