On \(A\)-convex norms on commutative algebras (Q976544)

Let \(A\) be a commutative complex algebra, \(\|\;\|\) a norm on \(A\) (which is not assumed to be an algebra norm) and \(\|a\|_{op}\) the operator semi-norm of \(a\), that is, \[ \|a\|_{op}=\sup _{\|b\|\leqslant 1}\|ab\|\;\;\text{for\;each}\;a\in A. \] Moreover, let \[ m(\|\;\|)=\sup _{\|b\|\leqslant 1}\|b\|_{op}\;\;\text{and}\;\;r(\|\;\|)=\sup _{\|b\|_{op}\leqslant 1}\|b\|. \] The authors study how the numbers \(m(\|\;\|)\) and \(r(\|\;\|)\) are connected with the submultiplicativity and \(A\)-convexity (that is, for each \(a\in A\) there is a \(M_a\geqslant 0\) such that \(\|ab\|\leqslant M_a\|b\|\) for each \(b\in A\)) of the norm \(\|\;\|\). They say that the norm \(\|\;\|\) is regular if \(\|\;\|=\|\;\|_{op}\), weakly regular if \(r(\|\;\|)\) is finite, and irregular if \(r(\|\;\|)=\infty\). Among other results, they prove that (a) if \(\|\;\|\) is a norm on \(A\) which makes the multiplication separately continuous and \(m(\|\;\|)\) is finite, then \(\|\;\|\) is equivalent to some submultiplicative norm \(|\;|\) on \(A\) (when \(\|\;\|\) defines a complete topology on \(A\), then \(m(\|\;\|)\) is always finite, and if, in addition, \(\|\;\|\) is weakly regular and \(\|\;\|_{op}\) is regular, then \(|\;|\) can be chosen so that \(r(\|\;\|)=1\)); (b) if \(A\) has a nonzero annihilator (has a unit element \(e\)), then every \(A\)-convex norm on \(A\) is irregular (respectively, \(r(\|\;\|)=\|e\|\)) and (c) if \(\|\;\|\) is irregular and \((A,\|\;\|)\) has an approximate identity, then it is unbounded.