Multiplications in additive compactifications of \({\mathbb N}\) and \({\mathbb Z}\) (Q1398197)

Semigroup compactifications of the additive semigroup \(({\mathbb N},+)\) keep to some extent track of its algebraic structure. Multiplication makes this structure richer and the aim of this paper is to investigate how to translate this new structure to the compactifications. If \( (\kappa {\mathbb N},+)\) is a semigroup compactification of \(({\mathbb N},+)\), the action of \({\mathbb N}\) on \(\kappa {\mathbb N}\) given by \(n\ast x=x+\overset {n} {\cdots}+ x\) is extended to an operation \(\ast\) in \(\kappa {\mathbb N}\). This operation turns out to be well-defined on the most prominent compactifications, \(\beta {\mathbb N}\), \(\text{wap} {\mathbb N}\), \(\text{ap}{\mathbb N}\) and \(\text{sap}{\mathbb N}\) (the Stone-Čech, weakly almost periodic, almost periodic and strongly almost periodic compactifications, respectively) and may even produce a ring structure as it is the case for \((\text{sap }{\mathbb N},+,\ast)\). Identifying this latter compactification with the Bohr compactification of \({\mathbb Z}\) the authors manage to prove that \((b{\mathbb Z},+,\ast)\) is isomorphic to the ring of endomorphisms of the ring \({\mathbb R}/{\mathbb Z}\). This way of extending the multiplication is motivated by the failure of ordinary multiplication (the one that is extended in the standard way \(p\cdot q= \lim_{m\to p}\lim_{n\to q} m\cdot n\)) to be well-defined on \(\text{wap}{\mathbb N}\). The topological centers of the semigroups \((\kappa {\mathbb N},\ast)\) are next computed for \(\kappa {\mathbb N}=\beta {\mathbb N},\) \(\text{wap}{\mathbb N}\), \(\text{ap} {\mathbb N}\) and \(\text{sap} {\mathbb N}\). This is used to prove that \(\ast\) does not distribute over \(+\) from the left in the case of \(\beta {\mathbb N}\) and \(\text{wap}{\mathbb N}\) and yields as a by-product a representation of \(b{\mathbb Z}\) and \(\beta {\mathbb N} \) as semigroups of matrices. The paper ends by studying the enveloping semigroups of the action of \({\mathbb Z}\) on compact groups. These semigroups always carry a ring structure that, when the compact group is not totally disconnected, is always isomorphic to \((b{\mathbb Z},+,\ast)\).