On the equivalence of some concepts in the theory of Banach algebras (Q2314392)

A Banach algebra \(B\) is called a weakly compact Banach algebra (\(WC\)-Banach algebra, in short) if the product of two arbitrary weakly compact subsets of \(B\) is again weakly compact. The product of two sets \(U\) and \(V\) is here considered to be just the collection of all products of elements \(uv\), where \(u\in U\) and \(v\in V\). A Banach algebra \(B\) is said to satisfy the condition \((P)\) if, for arbitrary sequences \((u_n)\) and \((v_n)\) in \(B\), from the fact that \((u_n)\) weakly converges to \(u\in B\) and \((v_n)\) weakly converges to \(v\in B\), it follows that the sequence \((u_nv_n)\) consisting of products \(u_nv_n\) converges weakly to the product \(uv\). It was already known before that a Banach algebra which satisfies the condition \((P)\) is a \(WC\)-Banach algebra. The main result of the present paper is the proof that actually these notions are equivalent, i.e., a Banach algebra satisfies the condition \((P)\) if and only if this algebra is a \(WC\)-Banach algebra. A Banach algebra is called relatively weakly compact Banach algebra if the product of any two relatively weakly compact subsets of the algebra is again relatively weakly compact. It is shown that, if the Banach algebra satisfies the condition \((P)\), then it is a relatively weakly compact Banach algebra. The reverse implication is not true, as is demonstrated by an example.