The stability of multiplicative semigroup homomorphisms to real normed algebras. (Q1076941)

There is a tradition of work on problems which fit into the following general scheme: suppose that a mapping between spaces with some suitable structure is ''almost structure preserving'' (in some precise sense which depends on the context). Can it then be approximated by a structure preserving mapping? Examples of suitable properties are: being an isometry between normed spaces or being linear, also between normed spaces. The paper under review considers the following type of problem. Suppose that f is a mapping from a semigroup S into a normed algebra which is almost multiplicative in the sense that for some positive \(\delta\) we have the inequality \(\| f(xy)-f(x)f(y)\| <\delta (x,y\in S)\). Does there then exist a multiplicative function h so that \(\| f(x)- h(x)\| <\epsilon\) (x\(\in S)\) for some \(\epsilon >0?\) The main result is that if the normed algebra is the algebra of complex \(n\times n\) matrices then this holds in the weaker form that the approximation h satisfies the condition \((h(xy)-h(x)h(y))^ 2=0\) for all x and y. The proof uses the existence of the Jordan normal form and mathematical induction on n (the case \(n=1\) is a result of J. Baker). This result is used to show that when \(n=2\), then the original problem has a positive solution.