Representations of involutive semigroups (Q1318963)

An involutive semigroup \(S\) is a semigroup together with an involutive antiautomorphism \(* : S \rightarrow S,\;s \mapsto s^*\). For discrete semigroups the correspondence between cyclic representations of \(S\) and exponentially bounded positive definite functions is the result of Theorem II.13. For topological involutive semigroups the continuous exponentially bounded positive definite functions correspond to locally bounded strongly continuous representations (Theorem III.8). These results are applied to prove an Extension Theorem which guarantees that, under certain natural conditions, a continuous locally bounded representation of a semigroup ideal extends continuously to the whole semigroup.