The notion of BSE algebras was introduced and first studied by Takahasi and Hatori and later studied by Kaniuth and Ülger. This notion depends strongly on the multiplier algebra $M( \mathcal{A} )$ of a commutative Banach algebra $ \mathcal{A} $. In this paper we first present a characterisation of the multiplier algebra of the direct sum of two commutative semisimple Banach algebras. Then as an application we show that $ \mathcal{A} \oplus \mathcal{B} $ is a BSE algebra if and only if $ \mathcal{A} $ and $ \mathcal{B} $ are BSE. We also prove that if the algebra $ \mathcal{A} \hspace{0.167em} {\mathop{\times }\nolimits}_{\theta } \hspace{0.167em} \mathcal{B} $ with $\theta $-Lau product is a BSE algebra and $ \mathcal{B} $ is unital then $ \mathcal{B} $ is a BSE algebra. We present some examples which show that the BSE property of $ \mathcal{A} \hspace{0.167em} {\mathop{\times }\nolimits}_{\theta } \hspace{0.167em} \mathcal{B} $ does not imply the BSE property of $ \mathcal{A} $, even in the case where $ \mathcal{B} $ is unital.

Higher-rank graphs were introduced by Kumjian and Pask to provide models for higher-rank Cuntz–Krieger algebras. In a previous paper, we constructed 2-graphs whose path spaces are rank-two subshifts of finite type, and showed that this construction yields aperiodic 2-graphs whoseC*-algebras are simple and are not ordinary graph algebras. Here we show that the construction also gives a family of periodic 2-graphs which we call domino graphs. We investigate the combinatorial structure of domino graphs, finding interesting points of contact with the existing combinatorial literature, and prove a structure theorem for the C*-algebras of domino graphs.

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 construct irreducible unitary representations of a finitely generated free group which are weakly contained in the left regular representation and in which a given linear combination of the generators has an eigenvalue. When the eigenvalue is specified, we conjecture that there is only one such representation. The representation we have found is described explicitly (modulo inversion of a certain rational map on Euclidean space) in terms of a positive definite function, and also by means of a quasi-invariant probability measure on the combinatorial boundary of the group.

We consider coactions of a locally compact group G on a C*-algebra A, and the associated crossed product C*-algebra A× G. Given a normal subgroup N of G, we seek to decompose A× G as an iterated crossed product (A× G/ N) × N, and introduce notions of twisted coaction and twisted crossed product which make this possible. We then prove a duality theorem for these twisted crossed products, and discuss how our results might be used, especially when N is abelian.

For a compact group G, we compute the Kazhdan constants κ(G, G) obtained by taking G itself as a generating subset. We get κ(G, G) = if G is finite of order n, and κ(G, G) = if G is infinite.

Let G be a locally compact group, and let D(G) be a dense subalgebra of the convolution algebra L1(G). Suppose that π is a unitary representation of G and that, for each u in D(G), π(u)) is a trace-class operator. Then the linear functional u → tr(π(u)) (the trace of π(u)) is called the D-character of π. We give a simple proof that the D-character of such a representation determines the representation up to unitary equivalence. As an application, we give an easy proof of the result of Harish-Chandra that the K-finite characters of unitary representations of semisimple Lie groups determine the representations.

We analyse the structure of a regular extension ℳ ⋊ γ, υQ of a von Neumann algebra ℳ by an action (modulo inner automorphisms) γ of a discrete group Q, and a nonabelian 2-cycle υ for γ, under the assumption that the “action” γ of Q is cocycle conjugate to an “action”, α which leaves globally invariant a cartan subalgebra of ℳ. we show that ℳ ⋊ γ, υQ is isomorphic with the algebra of the left regular projective representation of a certain discrete, non-principal groupoid ℜ V Q determined by the action of Q on the given cartan subalgebrs, where ℜ is the Takesaki relation associated to the pair (ℳ, ) we apply this description to give a decomposition of the regular representation of a group G into irreducibles, where G is a split extension of a type I group K by an abelian group Q, and work out the details of the author's earlier abstract plancherel theorem in the case when K is abelian.

We determine necessary and sufficient conditions for the multiplier representations of a discrete group to be type I. This result extends the corresponding result for ordinary representation given by Kaniuth in [4].

Let G be a Lie group, Go the connected component of G that contains the identity, and Aut G the group of all topological automorphisms of G. In the case when G/Go is finite and G has a faithful representation, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for G so that Aut G has finitely many components in terms of the maximal central torus in Go.

Let G be a group acting faithfully on a homogeneous tree of order p + 1, p > 1. Let be the space of functions on the Poission boundary ω, of zero mean on ω. When p is a prime. G is a discrete subgroup of PGL2(Qp) of finite covolume. The representations of the special series of PGL2(Qp), Which are irreducible and unitary in an appropriate completion of , are shown to be reducible when restricted to G. It is proved that these representations of G are algebraically reducible on and topologically irreducible on endowed with the week topology.

Let Γ be a free noncommutative group with free generating set A+. Let μ ∈ ℓ1(Γ) be real, symmetric, nonnegative and suppose that supp. Let λ be an endpoint of the spectrum of μ considered as a convolver on ℓ2(Γ). Then λ − μ is in the left kernel of exactly one pure state of the reduced in particular, Paschke's conjecture holds for λ − μ.

It is shown that for the computation of the Kazhdan constant for a compact group only the regular representation restricted to the orthogonal complement of the constant functions needs to be taken into account.

Let σ be an ergodic endomorphism of the r–dimensional torus and Π a semigroup generated by two affine transformations lying above σ. We show that the flow defined by Π admits minimal sets of positive Hausdorff dimension and we give necessary and sufficient conditions for this flow to be minimal.

For any group G, we introduce the subset S(G) of elements g which are conjugate to for some positive integer k. We show that, for any bounded representation π of G any g in S(G), either π(g) = 1 or the spectrum of π(g) is the full unit circle in C. As a corollary, S(G) is in the kernel of any homomorphism from G to the unitary group of a post-liminal C*-algebra with finite composition series.

Next, for a topological group G, we consider the subset of elements approximately conjugate to 1, and we prove that it is contained in the kernel of any uniformly continuous bounded representation of G, and of any strongly continuous unitary representation in a finite von Neumann algebra.

We apply these results to prove triviality for a number of representations of isotropic simple algebraic groups defined over various fields.

Let a1… ad be a basis of the Lie algebra g of a connected Lie group G and let M be a Lie subgroup of,G. If dx is a non-zero positive quasi-invariant regular Borel measure on the homogeneous space X = G/M and S: X × G → C is a continuous cocycle, then under a rather weak condition on dx and S there exists in a natural way a (weakly*) continuous representation U of G in Lp (X;dx) for all p ε [1,].

Let Ai be the infinitesimal generator with respect to U and the direction ai, for all i ∈ { 1… d}. We consider n–th order strongly elliptic operators H = ΣcαAα with complex coefficients cα. We show that the semigroup S generated by the closure of H has a reduced heat kernel K and we derive upper bounds for k and all its derivatives.

A class of totally disconnected groups consisting of partial direct products on an index set is examined. For such a group, the scale function is found, and for automorphisms arising from permutations of the index set, the tidy subgroups are characterised. When applied to the case where the index set is a finitely-generated free group and the permutation is translation by an element x of the group, the scale depends on the cyclically reduced form of x and the tidy subgroup on the element which conjugates x to its cyclically reduced form.

In 1947 I. E. Segal proved that to each non-degenerate ~ -representation R of L1 (= L1 (G) for a compact group G) with representation space , there corresponds a continuous unitary representation W of G, also with representation space , which satisfies

for each fL1 and hk. This was extended to Lp,1p < , in 1970 by E. Hewitt and K. A. Ross. We now generalize this result to any symmetric homogeneous convolution Banach alebra of pseudomeasures on G. Further we prove that the correspondence preserves irreduibility.

The graph product of a family of groups lies somewhere between their direct and free products, with the graph determining which pairs of groups commute. We show that the graph product of quasi-lattice ordered groups is quasi-lattice ordered, and, when the underlying groups are amenable, that it satisfies Nica's amenability condition for quasi-lattice orders. The associated Toeplitz algebras have a universal property, and their representations are faithful if the generating isometries satisfy a joint properness condition. When applied to right-angled Artin groups this yields a uniqueness theorem for the C*-algebra generated by a collection of isometries such that any two of them either *-commute or else have orthogonal ranges. The analogous result fails to hold for the nonabelian Artin groups of finite type considered by Brieskorn and Saito, and Deligne.

For a locally compact group G, the von Neumann kernel, n(G), is the intersection of the kernels of the finite dimensional (continuous) unitary representations of G. In this paper we calculate n(G) explicitly for a general connected locally compact group and for certain classes of non-connected groups.