Weighted composition operators and locally convex algebras (Q2460713)

This paper offers several results concerning continuous linear forms on locally convex algebras. The starting point is a theorem due to Gleason, Kahane and Żelazko characterizing the continuous complex-valued homomorphisms of an associative, locally multiplicatively convex, sequentially complete algebra, which, in turn, implies that certain classes of linear maps from such an algebra into itself can be represented as (possibly weighted) composition operators. The author applies these core ideas first to the Hardy space \(H^p\) (for \(1\leq p<\infty\)) of holomorphic functions on the open unit disc, which becomes a non-unital commutative algebra when equipped with the Hadamard product. (If \(f=\sum{a_nz^n}\) and \(g=\sum{b_nz^n}\) are in \(H^p\), then the Hadamard product \(f*g\) is the function with power series \(\sum{a_nb_nz^n}\), also in \(H^p\).) Theorem~8 demonstrates that, for \(1\leq p<\infty\) and \(p\neq 2\), the only isometric automorphism of \(H^p\) (equipped with the Hadamard product) is the identity map. The last two sections of the paper consider the possibility of extending the result from linear algebra that a linear form on the algebra of \(n\times n\) complex matrices (with \(n>1\)) must vanish on some invertible matrix to infinite-dimensional algebras. In particular, in the setting of the non-commutative algebra \({\mathcal C}_2\) of Hilbert--Schmidt operators on a separable Hilbert space \({\mathcal H}\), Theorem~9 asserts that, if \({\mathcal H}\) is infinite-dimensional and \(\lambda\) is a nonzero continuous linear form on \({\mathcal C}_2\), then there is some quasi-regular element \(X\) of \({\mathcal C}_2\) such that \(\lambda(X)=1\). (The element \(X\) is called quasi-regular if there is a unique element \(Y\) such that \(XY=YX=X+Y\).) In the concluding section, it is shown that this result extends to continuous linear forms on non-commutative full Hilbert algebras. In the introduction, the author describes the results of this paper as ``preliminary'' and promises, in his conclusion, a future paper containing further progress along these lines. Nonetheless, complete proofs are provided and the writing style is quite approachable.