A simple characterization of commutative \(H^*\)-algebras (Q1970292)

The author's introduction furnishes a very informative review: Commutative \(H^*\)-algebras are characterized without postulating the existence of Hilbert space structure. Let \({\mathcal M}\) be the space of all maximal regular ideals in a commutative \(H^*\)-algebra \(A\) and let \(x(M)\), \(M\in{\mathcal M}\) denote the Gelfand transform of \(x\). Then it is easy to show [see 27G in the well known monograph ``An introduction to abstract harmonic analyses'' (1953; Zbl 0052.11701) of \textit{L. H. Loomis}] that the series \(\sum x(M)\overline y(M)\) converges absolutely for all \(x,y\in A\). Also, if we assume that each minimal selfadjoint idempotent in \(A\) has norm 1, then it is true that for each bounded linear function \(f\) on \(A\) \((f\in A^*)\) there exists \(a\in A\) such that \(f(x)= \sum x(M)\overline a(M)\) for all \(x\in A\). In this note it is shown that these properties can be used to characterize commutative operator \(H^*\)-algebras of this kind. More specifically, it is shown that each semi-single completely symmetric Banach algebra with the above properties is a proper \(H^*\)-algebra with respect to some Hilbertian norm which is equivalent to its original norm. Also, a characterization of all proper commutative \(H^*\)-algebras is given. It is a nice courtesy to the reader that all the bibliographic entries are furnishes with Math Reviews and Zentralblatt coordinates.