A holomorphic characterization of \(C^*\)- and \(JB^*\)-algebras (Q5937999)

It is well-known that the open unit ball of a \(C^*\)-algebra is a bounded symmetric domain, and that \(C^*\)-algebras have approximate units bounded by one. In the present paper, the authors prove that these two properties characterize \(C^*\)-algebras inside the class of the complex Banach (associative) algebras. The key tools used in the proof are the holomorphic characterization of the Banach spaces underlying unital \(\text{JB}^*\)-algebras and the Vidav-Palmer theorem theorem (both in its original form and in Moore's reformulation). In accordance with the nonassociative tradition of the authors, they actually obtain the associative result as a consequence of a similar one for the more general noncommutative \(\text{JB}^*\)-algebras. Another interesting contribution of the paper is an inequality for noncommutative \(\text{JB}^*\)-algebras from which, the existence of an increasing approximate unit consisting of positive element with norm \(\leq 1\) in every noncommutative \(\text{JB}^*\)-algebras, is derived.