Estimates for the involution of decomposable elements of a complex Banach algebra (Q883642)

Let \(A\) be a complex Banach algebra with unit 1. The set of all decomposable (i.e., into Hermitian components) elements of \(A\) is a complex Banach Lie algebra \(H_\mathcal C (A)\) with respect to its commutator. One of the main results of the paper is to show that there exists a constant \(\gamma < 2\) such that \(\| x^*\| \leq \gamma \| x\| \), where \(x \rightarrow x^*\) is the natural involution on \(H_\mathcal C (A)\). The best possible value of this constant is given by \(\gamma = 2\, \sup | f'(0)| \), where the supremum is taken over all real odd entire functions \(f\) of exponential type \( \leq 1\) satisfying the inequalities \[ | t^{n+1}(t^{-1}d/dt)^n(f(t)/t)| \leq 1 \quad\text{for any } n = 0, 1, 2,\dots \] everywhere on the real axis. A more general problem is considered: the original problem is included in a continuous family parametrized by the numerical radius of the element. Finding the exact value of \(\gamma\) is reduced to a variational problem in the theory of entire functions of exponential type. Approximately, \(\gamma = 1.92 \pm 0.04\).