On vector-valued characters for noncommutative function algebras (Q1984632)

An operator algebra \(A\) is a unital closed subalgebra of a norm-closed algebra \(B\) of Hilbert space operators containing the identity operator. If \(B\) is commutative, then \(A\) becomes a function algebra. A~character of a function algebra \(A\) is a multiplicative linear functional on \(A\) assuming the value 1 at the identity operator. In this paper, vector-valued characters for noncommutative function algebras are introduced. In the first section of the paper, appropriate classical concepts are recalled such as representing measure \(\mu\) for a character \(\Phi\), a noncommutative version of characters \(\Phi:A\to B(H)\), with \(B(H)\) denoting the \(C^*\)-algebra of all linear operators on a Hilbert space \(H\), and for a unital \(C^*\)-subalgebra \(D\) of \(A\) the \(D\)-characters are defined as \(\Phi:A\to D\), which will play an important role in generalizing some aspects of the classical theory to noncommutative settings. Also, the case when \(D\) is a von Neumann subalgebra of a von Neumann algebra \(B\) is considered. In the second section, aspects of Jensen's inequality are investigated, and in the third section of the paper, some Gleason-Whitney-type results are obtained. In the fourth section, a noncommutative variant for the Bishop-Ito-Schreiber theorem is presented, and the fifth section is devoted to a study of noncommutative Gleason parts. In the last section of the paper, some applications of Gleason parts to subdiagonal algebras are given and an existence criterion for a so-called Wermer embedding function in the noncommutative context is obtained.