p-adic almost periodic functions (Q921445)

K denotes a complete non-archimedean valued field. p is the characteristic of the residue class field of K. A group G is called p- divisible when \(p\neq 0\), if the equation \(y=px\) is solvable for x for every \(y\in G\). The author has generalized the concept of almost periodicity in the non-archimedean case defined analogously as in the classical case by the reviewer [Indag. Math. 31, 345-353 (1969; Zbl 0189.145)]. He calls a function f almost periodic if the collection \(f_ G\) of the translate functions \(f_ s\) \((f_ s(x)=f(x+s)\) for all \(x\in G)\), \(s\in G\), where G is an abelian group, is a compactoid. When K is algebraically closed the author proves that the existence of an invariant mean on the space AP(G\(\to K)\) of almost periodic functions in the above sense is equivalent to the fact that k-valued characters of G (i.e. homomorphisms from G into the multiplicative group (\(\lambda\in K:| \lambda | =1))\) form an orthonormal base of AP(G\(\to K)\) which is in turn equivalent to the fact that G is p-divisible when \(p\neq 0\) and G is torsion-free when \(p=0\). At the end of the paper the author states that no such characterization is known for non-abelian groups. Similar characterizations of the existence of a mean on the space of continuous almost periodic functions on abelian topological groups are also open.