The topological center of the spectrum of some distal algebras (Q692557)

For \(k\in \mathbb N\), the closed subalgebra \(W_k\) of \(\ell^\infty (\mathbb Z)\) generated by functions \(n\mapsto \lambda^{n^i}\), with \(\lambda\in\mathbb T, i=0,\cdots,k,\) is a closed subalgebra of the so called Weyl algebra. This paper finds the topological center \(\Lambda\) of the enveloping semigroup \(\Sigma\) of the dynamical system on \(W_k\) given by the shift operator, that is the subset of \(\Sigma\) for which the composition is left and right continuous. The author identifies \(\Lambda\) with the group \(\mathbb Z\times \Hom(\mathbb T/H,\mathbb T) \), \(H\) being the torsion subgroup of \(\mathbb T\), and shows that, up to isomorphism, the group structure of the former is independent of \(k\). The same result for the Weyl algebra was already proved by the author and \textit{I. Namioka} in [Milan J. Math. 78, No. 2, 503--522 (2010; Zbl 1238.37002)].