On weakly almost periodic sets (Q1061240)

A subset A of a semitopological semigroup S is called weakly almost periodic if its indicator function \(c_ A\) (defined by \(c_ A(x)=1\) if \(x\in A\) and \(c_ A(x)=0\) if \(x\not\in A)\) is weakly almost periodic in the usual sense. In the present paper we restrict our attention to discrete semigroups S; we study weakly almost periodic subsets under the viewpoint of obtaining structural information about the weak almost periodic compactification \((S^ w,\phi)\) of S. We give combinatorial characterizations of weakly almost periodic sets and of subsets A of S for which the restriction of the weak almost periodic compactification \((S^ w,\phi)\) to A is equivalent to the Stone-Čech compactification; using these characterizations we show e.g. that \(S^ w\) cannot be a union of groups if S is an infinite group and that \(S^ w\) contains a copy of \(\beta\) \({\mathbb{N}}\) if S is a cancellative infinite semigroup. Also, if S has proper translations and A is a weakly almost periodic subset of S then (\(\overline{\phi (A)},\phi | A)\) is equivalent to \(\beta\) A if and only if \(\overline{\phi (A)}\) does not meet the square \((S^ w\setminus \phi (S))^ 2\) of the remainder \(S^ w\setminus \phi (S)\) of \(S^ w\).