Weak spectral synthesis in commutative Banach algebras. III (Q491494)

Weak spectral sets were introduced by \textit{C. R. Warner} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 99, 244--248 (1987; Zbl 0612.43006)] in connection with the union problem for sets of synthesis; subsequently, weak spectral sets and weak synthesis have attracted considerable attention. Let \(A\) be a regular and Tauberian semisimple commutative Banach algebra with the structure space \(\Delta(A)\). In this paper, the authors associate to each closed subset \(E\) of \(\Delta(A)\) a descending sequence of closed subsets \(\sigma_n(E)\) of \(E\) and an ascending sequence of closed ideals \(I_n(E)\) of \(A\). By studying those sequences, various criteria for \(E\) to be a weak spectral set in \(\Delta(A)\) are established. Let \(E\) be a closed subset of \(\Delta(A)\) and \(A^*(E)\) be the annihilator of the ideal \(J(E)\) in \(A^*\). For each \(n\in \mathbb N\), the set \(\sigma_n(E)\) is given by \[ \sigma_n(E)= \overline{\bigcup \{\sigma(a\cdot f): a\in k(E)^n, f\in A^*(E)\}}^{w*}, \] where the \(w^*\)-closure is taken in \(\Delta(A)\), \(k(E):= \{a\in A: \hat{a}(\varphi)= 0 \, \text{ for all } \, \varphi \in E\}\) is the largest ideal with hull \(E\) and \(\sigma(f)\) is the \(w^*\)-spectrum of \(f\). The closed ideal \(I_n(E)\) of \(A\) is defined by \[ I_n(E)= \{a\in A: a k(E)^n \subseteq J(E)\}. \] Note that \(I_n(E)\) is the largest closed ideal \(I\) of \(A\) such that \(I k(E)^n \subseteq J(E)\) and \(\sigma_n(E)\) is the hull of the ideal \(I_n(E)\). As an application, let \(\phi\) be a surjective homomorphism between two regular Tauberian semisimple commutative Banach algebras; the authors show that \(\phi^*(\sigma_n(E)) \subseteq \sigma_n(\phi^*(E))\), which implies general injection results for weak spectral sets. Other applications concerning unions of weak spectral sets and projective tensor products are studied, as well as some interesting examples in algebras of \(m\)-times continuously differentiable functions, of Lipschitz functions, and \(L^1(\mathbb R^N)\). The paper is a continuation of [\textit{E. Kaniuth}, J. Funct. Anal. 254, No. 4, 987--1002 (2008; Zbl 1152.46041)] and [\textit{E. Kaniuth}, J. Funct. Anal. 259, No. 2, 524--544 (2010; Zbl 1211.46053)].