Note on certain group algebras

Abstract

In this note we point out two properties (Theorems 1 and 2) of the group algebra of the direct product of a compact group and a locally compact abelian group and indicate briefly how these properties enable one to extend to these group algebras theorems which are known in the compact and abelian cases. Our interest in these properties is two-fold; they establish the applicability of known results in [4]1 to the group algebras in question, and they provide an interesting example of a type of B-algebra, a sort of Kroliecker product algebra, which may very well deserve independenlt systematic study. The reader is referred to results of Kaplansky [1 ] and Segal [2 ] of which this note is essentially a continuation. Let C be a compact group, A be a locally compact abelian group, and G = CXA be their direct product group. We are interested in the group algebras L1(C), L1(A), and L1(G). In particular, we ask how the latter is related to the first two. We will show (1) how the B-algebra L1(G) is formed out of the B-algebras L1(C) and L1(A) and (2) how the structure space of L1(G) is formed from the structure spaces of L1(C) and L1(A). DEFINITION 1. The complex algebra R is the Kronecker product of the complex algebras R1 and R2 (written R = R1 XR2) if there exists a map (xl, X2)>X1 X X2 of (R1, R2) into R such that