Homomorphisms with small bound between Fourier algebras (Q522303)

Let \(G\) be a locally compact group. The Fourier algebra \(A(G)\) and the Fourier-Stieltjes algebra \(B(G)\) ([\textit{P. Eymard}, Bull. Soc. Math. Fr. 92, 181--236 (1964; Zbl 0169.46403)]) are certain Banach algebras of continuous functions on \(G\) that, in the case when \(G\) is abelian, are isomorphic to the group algebra \(L^1(\widehat{G})\) and the measura algebra \(M(\widehat{G})\) on the dual group \(\widehat{G}\) of \(G\). Note only \(A(G)\) and \(B(G)\) are Banach algebras, but they are actually endowed with canonical operator space structures ([\textit{Z.-J. Ruan}, Am. J. Math. 117, No. 6, 1449--1474 (1995; Zbl 0842.43004)]): \(A(G)\) being the predual of the group von Neumann algebra \(VN(G)\) and \(B(G)\) the dual of the group C\(^*\)-algebra \(C^*(G)\). It is a major problem to determine the homomorphisms from \(A(G)\) into \(B(H)\), where \(H\) is another locally compact group. Such a homomorphism is necessarily bounded. In the case that the homomorphism is assumed to be completely bounded, its form has been described by \textit{M. Ilie} and \textit{N. Spronk} [J. Funct. Anal. 225, No. 2, 480--499 (2005; Zbl 1077.43004)], which involves a piecewise affine mapping from \(H\) into \(G\). In this interesting paper, the authors show that if the completely bounded norm of the homomorphism is less than \(\sqrt{5}/2\), then the piecewise affine mapping mentioned above has only one piece (i.e. it is a translate of a group homomorphism or a group anti-homomorphism). In particular, if the completely bounded norm of a homomorphism \(A(G)\to B(H)\) is less than \(\sqrt{5}/2\) then it must actually be \(1\) (or \(0\), in the case of the trivial homomorphism). The paper contains other related results: in the case of an isomorphism between \(A(G)\) and \(A(G)\), the bound for the completely bounded norm can be increased to \(\sqrt{3/2}\). While for the usual Banach space norms, the authors can show the existence of a universal (but non-explicit) bound for the norm distortion of the isomorphism that would force the algebra isomorphism to be induced from a group isomorphism or a group anti-isomorphism.