Recently, Levin and Saxon [5], De Wilde and Houet [2] defined the σ-barrelledness while Husain [3] defined the countable barrelledness and countable quasibarrelledness. It is well-known that barrelled spaces are countably barrelled, and countably barrelled spaces are σ-barrelled. It is natural to ask whether there is some condition for σ-barrelled (resp. countably barrelled) spaces to be countably barrelled (resp. barrelled). Using the concept of S-absorbent sequences of sets, we are able to give such conditions in Theorem 2.5 and Corollaries 2.6 and 2.7.

The α-regular classes of any finite group G are important since they are those classes on which the projective characters of G with factor set α take non-zero value, and thus a knowledge of the α-regular classes gives the number of irreducible projective representations of G with factor set α (see [4]). Here we look at the particular case of the generalized symmetric group Cm wr Sl. The analogous problem of constructing the irreducible projective representations of Cm wr Sl has been dealt with in [6] by generalizing Clifford's theory of inducing from normal subgroups, but unfortunately, it is not in general possible to determine the irreducible projective characters (and hence the α-regular classes) by this method.

Throughout this note we deal with a series Σan of positive terms. The following tests for the convergence of this series are well-known.

Test 1. (Ratio test). LetThen, if K < 1, Σanconverges, while if K > 1, Σandiverges.

Test 2. (Root test). LetThen, if K < 1, Σanconverges, while if K > 1, Σandiverges.

The definition of Ωf,a on p. 57 should read a

Let A1 and A2 be sup-norm algebras, each containing the constant functions. Let P(A1, A2) denote the set of bounded linear operators from A1 to A2 which carry 1 into 1 and have norm 1. Several authors have considered the problem of describing the extreme points of P(A1, A2). In the case where A1 is the algebra of continuous complex functions on some compact Hausdorff space, and A2 is the algebra of complex scalars, Arens and Kelley proved that the extreme operators in P(A1, A2) are exactly the multiplicative ones (see [1]). It was shown by Phelps in [6] that if A1 is self-adjoint, then every extreme point of P(A1, A1) is multiplicative. In [4], Lindenstrauss, Phelps, and Ryff exhibited non-multiplicative extreme points of P(A, A) and P(H∞, H∞), where A and H∞ are, respectively, the disk algebra, and the algebra of bounded analytic functions on the open unit disk D. The extreme multiplicative operators in P(A, A) were described in [6]. Rochberg proved in [8] that, if T is a member of P(A, A) which carries the identity on D into an extreme point of the unit ball of A, then T is multiplicative and is an extreme point of P(A, A). Rochberg's paper [9] is a study of certain extremal subsets of P(A, A), namely, those of the form K(F, G) = {T∊P(A, A):TF=G}, where F and G are inner functions in A. We proved in [5] that, if F is non-constant, then K(F, G) contains an extreme point of P(A, A).

In what follows, B(H) will denote the C*-algebra of all bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space H. Suppose we are given a C*-subalgebra A of B(H), which we shall suppose contains the identity operator 1. We are concerned with the existence of states f of B(H) which satisfy the following trace-like relation relative to A:

Our first result shows the existence of states f satisfying (*), when A is the C*-algebra C*(x) generated by a normaloid operator × and the identity. This allows us to give simple proofs of some well-known results in operator theory. Recall that an operator × is normaloid if its operator norm equals its spectral radius.

An inverse semigroup R is said to be reduced (or proper) if ℛ∩σ= i (where σ is the minimum group congruence on R). McAlister has shown ([3], [4]) that every reduced inverse semigroup is isomorphic with a “P-semigroup” P(G, , ), for some semilattice , poset containing as an ideal, and group G acting on by order-automorphisms; (and, conversely, every P-semigroup is reduced). In [4], he also found the morphisms between P-semigroups, in terms of morphisms between the respective groups, and between the respective posets.