Objects dual to subsemigroups of groups (Q1180724)

Let \(S\) be a closed submonoid of a topological group \(G\). A function \(f:G\to\mathbb{R}\) is said to be \(S\)-monotone if \(f(gs)\geq f(g)\) holds for all \(s\in S\) and \(g\in G\). The author gives a description of the duality between closed submonoids of topological groups (Lie groups) and the corresponding cones of continuous (smooth, analytic) monotone functions. He considers the categories of topological spaces, smooth manifolds and analytic manifolds. The gist of this paper is the proof that there are enough \(S\)-monotone functions to separate points from \(S\). In the analytic category he uses the properties of heat kernels on Lie groups to obtain this result. Finally he gives a characterization of those Lie wedges which admit strictly positive analytic functions which is a stronger version of results of the author [The duality between subsemigroups of Lie groups and monotone functions, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 329, 653-677 (1992)] and \textit{J. Hilgert, K. H. Hofmann} and \textit{J. D. Lawson} [``Lie Groups, Convex Cones, and Semigroups'' (Oxf. Math. Monogr. 1989; Zbl 0701.22001)]. This characterization has various applications, for example to harmonic analysis on ordered symmetric spaces [the author, Monotone functions on symmetric spaces, Math. Ann. (to appear)].