By defining and applying the restricted topology, we have investigated certain connections between the boundary spectrum, the exponential spectrum, the topological boundary of the spectrum and the connected hull of the spectrum (see Mouton and Harte [‘Linking the boundary and exponential spectra via the restricted topology’, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 454 (2017), 730–745]). We now solve a remaining problem regarding the restricted connected hull.

We prove that there exist finitely generated, stably finite algebras which are not linear sofic. This was left open by Arzhantseva and Păunescu in 2017.

Let ${\mathcal A}$ be a Banach algebra, and let $\varphi $ be a nonzero character on ${\mathcal A}$ . For a closed ideal I of ${\mathcal A}$ with $I\not \subseteq \ker \varphi $ such that I has a bounded approximate identity, we show that $\operatorname {WAP}(\mathcal {A})$ , the space of weakly almost periodic functionals on ${\mathcal A}$ , admits a right (left) invariant $\varphi $ -mean if and only if $\operatorname {WAP}(I)$ admits a right (left) invariant $\varphi |_I$ -mean. This generalizes a result due to Neufang for the group algebra $L^1(G)$ as an ideal in the measure algebra $M(G)$ , for a locally compact group G. Then we apply this result to the quantum group algebra $L^1({\mathbb G})$ of a locally compact quantum group ${\mathbb G}$ . Finally, we study the existence of left and right invariant $1$ -means on $ \operatorname {WAP}(\mathcal {T}_{\triangleright }({\mathbb G}))$ .

We characterise the existence of certain (weakly) compact multipliers of the second dual of symmetric abstract Segal algebras in both the group algebra $L^{1}(G)$ and the Fourier algebra $A(G)$ of a locally compact group G.

We show that there is no nontrivial idempotent in the reduced group $\ell ^p$ -operator algebra $B^p_r(F_n)$ of the free group $F_n$ on n generators for each positive integer n.

Let A be a semisimple, unital, and complex Banach algebra. It is well known and easy to prove that A is commutative if and only $e^xe^y=e^{x+y}$ for all $x,y\in A$ . Elaborating on the spectral theory of commutativity developed by Aupetit, Zemánek, and Zemánek and Pták, we derive, in this paper, commutativity results via a spectral comparison of $e^xe^y$ and $e^{x+y}$ .

Generalising the concept of injectivity, we study the notion of $\varphi $ -injectivity for dual Banach algebras. It provides a framework for studying $\varphi $ -amenability of enveloping dual Banach algebras.

Non-amenability of ${\mathcal {B}}(E)$ has been surprisingly difficult to prove for the classical Banach spaces, but is now known for E = ℓp and E = Lp for all 1 ⩽ p < ∞. However, the arguments are rather indirect: the proof for L1 goes via non-amenability of $\ell ^\infty ({\mathcal {K}}(\ell _1))$ and a transference principle developed by Daws and Runde (Studia Math., 2010).

In this note, we provide a short proof that ${\mathcal {B}}(L_1)$ and some of its subalgebras are non-amenable, which completely bypasses all of this machinery. Our approach is based on classical properties of the ideal of representable operators on L1, and shows that ${\mathcal {B}}(L_1)$ is not even approximately amenable.

We study ring-theoretic (in)finiteness properties—such as Dedekind-finiteness and proper infiniteness—of ultraproducts (and more generally, reduced products) of Banach algebras.

While we characterise when an ultraproduct has these ring-theoretic properties in terms of its underlying sequence of algebras, we find that, contrary to the $C^*$ -algebraic setting, it is not true in general that an ultraproduct has a ring-theoretic finiteness property if and only if “ultrafilter many” of the underlying sequence of algebras have the same property. This might appear to violate the continuous model theoretic counterpart of Łoś’s Theorem; the reason it does not is that for a general Banach algebra, the ring theoretic properties we consider cannot be verified by considering a bounded subset of the algebra of fixed bound. For Banach algebras, we construct counter-examples to show, for example, that each component Banach algebra can fail to be Dedekind-finite while the ultraproduct is Dedekind-finite, and we explain why such a counter-example is not possible for $C^*$ -algebras. Finally, the related notion of having stable rank one is also studied for ultraproducts.

Let $\mathbb{G}$ be a locally compact quantum group and let $I$ be a closed ideal of $L^{1}(\mathbb{G})$ with $y|_{I}\neq 0$ for some $y\in \text{sp}(L^{1}(\mathbb{G}))$. In this paper, we give a characterization for compactness of $\mathbb{G}$ in terms of the existence of a weakly compact left or right multiplier $T$ on $I$ with $T(f)(y|_{I})\neq 0$ for some $f\in I$. Using this, we prove that $I$ is an ideal in its second dual if and only if $\mathbb{G}$ is compact. We also study Arens regularity of $I$ whenever it has a bounded left approximate identity. Finally, we obtain some characterizations for amenability of $\mathbb{G}$ in terms of the existence of some $I$-module homomorphisms on $I^{\ast \ast }$ and on $I^{\ast }$.

A Banach algebra $A$ is said to be a zero Jordan product determined Banach algebra if, for every Banach space $X$, every bilinear map $\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}:A\times A\rightarrow X$ satisfying $\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}(a,b)=0$ whenever $a$, $b\in A$ are such that $ab+ba=0$, is of the form $\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}(a,b)=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}(ab+ba)$ for some continuous linear map $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$. We show that all $C^{\ast }$-algebras and all group algebras $L^{1}(G)$ of amenable locally compact groups have this property and also discuss some applications.

We study the second dual algebra of a Banach algebra and related problems. We resolve some questions raised by Ülger, which are related to Arens products. We then discuss a question of Gulick on the radical of the second dual algebra of the group algebra of a discrete abelian group and give an application of Arens regularity to Fourier and Fourier–Stieltjes transforms.

We define extensions of the weighted core–EP inverse and weighted core–EP pre-orders of bounded linear operators on Hilbert spaces to elements of a $C^{\ast }$-algebra. Some properties of the weighted core–EP inverse and weighted core–EP pre-orders are generalized and some new ones are proved. Using the weighted element, the weighted core–EP pre-order, the minus partial order and the star partial order of certain elements, new weighted pre-orders are presented on the set of all $wg$-Drazin invertible elements of a $C^{\ast }$-algebra. Applying these results, we introduce and characterize new partial orders which extend the core–EP pre-order to a partial order.

Let ${\mathcal{A}}$ be a complex unital Banach algebra, let $a$ be an element in it and let $0<\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}<1$. In this article, we study the upper and lower hemicontinuity and joint continuity of the condition spectrum and its level set maps in appropriate settings. We emphasize that the empty interior of the $\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}$-level set of a condition spectrum at a given $(\unicode[STIX]{x1D716},a)$ plays a pivotal role in the continuity of the required maps at that point. Further, uniform continuity of the condition spectrum map is obtained in the domain of normal matrices.

For a compact metric space (K, d), LipK denotes the Banach algebra of all complex-valued Lipschitz functions on (K, d). We show that the continuous Hochschild cohomology Hn(LipK, (LipK)*) and Hn(LipK, ℂe) are both infinite-dimensional vector spaces for each n ≥ 1 if the space K contains a certain infinite sequence which converges to a point e ∈ K. Here (LipK)* is the dual module of LipK and ℂe denotes the complex numbers with a LipK-bimodule structure defined by evaluations of LipK-functions at e. Examples of such metric spaces include all compact Riemannian manifolds, compact geodesic metric spaces and infinite compact subsets of ℝ. In particular, the (small) global homological dimension of LipK is infinite for every such space. Our proof uses the description of point derivations by Sherbert [‘The structure of ideals and point derivations in Banach algebras of Lipschitz functions’, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.111 (1964), 240–272] and directly constructs non-trivial cocycles with the help of alternating cocycles of Johnson [‘Higher-dimensional weak amenability’, Studia Math.123 (1997), 117–134]. An alternating construction of cocycles on the basis of the idea of Kleshchev [‘Homological dimension of Banach algebras of smooth functions is equal to infinity’, Vest. Math. Mosk. Univ. Ser. 1. Mat. Mech.6 (1988), 57–60] is also discussed.

We show that an essentially amenable Banach algebra need not have an approximate identity. This answers a question posed by Ghahramani and Loy [‘Generalized notions of amenability’, J. Funct. Anal.  208 (2004), 229–260]. Essentially Connes-amenable dual Banach algebras are introduced and studied.

Motivated by the definition of a semigroup compactication of a locally compact group and a large collection of examples, we introduce the notion of an (operator) homogeneous left dual Banach algebra (HLDBA) over a (completely contractive) Banach algebra $A$. We prove a Gelfand-type representation theorem showing that every HLDBA over A has a concrete realization as an (operator) homogeneous left Arens product algebra: the dual of a subspace of $A^{\ast }$ with a compatible (matrix) norm and a type of left Arens product $\Box$. Examples include all left Arens product algebras over $A$, but also, when $A$ is the group algebra of a locally compact group, the dual of its Fourier algebra. Beginning with any (completely) contractive (operator) $A$-module action $Q$ on a space $X$, we introduce the (operator) Fourier space $({\mathcal{F}}_{Q}(A^{\ast }),\Vert \cdot \Vert _{Q})$ and prove that $({\mathcal{F}}_{Q}(A^{\ast })^{\ast },\Box )$ is the unique (operator) HLDBA over $A$ for which there is a weak$^{\ast }$-continuous completely isometric representation as completely bounded operators on $X^{\ast }$ extending the dual module representation. Applying our theory to several examples of (completely contractive) Banach algebras $A$ and module operations, we provide new characterizations of familiar HLDBAs over A and we recover, and often extend, some (completely) isometric representation theorems concerning these HLDBAs.

We consider the unital Banach algebra $\ell ^{1}(\mathbb{Z}_{+})$ and prove directly, without using cyclic cohomology, that the simplicial cohomology groups ${\mathcal{H}}^{n}(\ell ^{1}(\mathbb{Z}_{+}),\ell ^{1}(\mathbb{Z}_{+})^{\ast })$ vanish for all $n\geqslant 2$. This proceeds via the introduction of an explicit bounded linear operator which produces a contracting homotopy for $n\geqslant 2$. This construction is generalised to unital Banach algebras $\ell ^{1}({\mathcal{S}})$, where ${\mathcal{S}}={\mathcal{G}}\cap \mathbb{R}_{+}$ and ${\mathcal{G}}$ is a subgroup of $\mathbb{R}_{+}$.

Harte (1982, Math. Z.179, 431–436) initiated the study of Fredholm theory relative to a unital homomorphism T: A → B between unital Banach algebras A and B based on the following notions: an element a ∈ A is called Fredholm if 0 is not in the spectrum of Ta, while a is Weyl (Browder) if there exist (commuting) elements b and c in A with a = b + c such that 0 is not in the spectrum of b and c is in the null space of T. We introduce and investigate the concepts of r-Fredholm, r-Weyl and r-Browder elements, where 0 in these definitions is replaced by the spectral radii of a and b, respectively.

In this paper we define B-Fredholm elements in a Banach algebra A modulo an ideal J of A. When a trace function is given on the ideal J, it generates an index for B-Fredholm elements. In the case of a B-Fredholm operator T acting on a Banach space, we prove that its usual index ind(T) is equal to the trace of the commutator [T, T0], where T0 is a Drazin inverse of T modulo the ideal of finite rank operators, extending Fedosov's trace formula for Fredholm operators (see Böttcher and Silbermann [Analysis of Toeplitz operators, 2nd edn (Springer, 2006)]. In the case of a primitive Banach algebra, we prove a punctured neighbourhood theorem for the index.