On the growth of Hermitian groups (Q2347644)

Summary: A locally compact group \(G\) is said to be Hermitian if every selfadjoint element of \(L^1(G)\) has real spectrum. Using Halmos' notion of capacity in Banach algebras and a result of \textit{J. W. Jenkins} [Pac. J. Math. 32, 131--145 (1970; Zbl 0172.03603); Stud. Math. 45, 295--307 (1973; Zbl 0222.22008)] and \textit{J. B. Fountain} et al. [Proc. R. Ir. Acad., Sect. A 76, 235--251 (1976; Zbl 0309.43010)], we will put a bound on the growth of Hermitian groups. In other words, we will show that if \(G\) has a subset that grows faster than a certain constant, then \(G\) cannot be Hermitian. Our result allows us to give new examples of non-Hermitian groups which could not tackled by the existing theory. The examples include certain infinite free Burnside groups, automorphism groups of trees, and \(p\)-adic general and special linear groups.