Banach Algebras and the General Theory of *-Algebras: Volume 2, *-Algebras

This second of two volumes gives a modern exposition of the theory of Banach algebras with involutions and their use to study locally compact groups. The book is intended to serve as an introduction and reference to essentially all current research in the field. It contains many new results.

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This is the second volume of a two-volume set that provides a modern account of basic Banach algebra theory including all known results on general Banach *-algebras. The author emphasizes the roles of *-algebra structure and explores the algebraic results which underlie the theory of Banach algebras and *-algebras. Proofs are presented in complete detail at a level accessible to graduate students. The books will become the standard reference for the general theory of *-algebras. This second volume deals with *-algebras. Chapter 9 develops the theory of *-algebras without additional restrictions. Chapter 10 proves nearly all the results previously known for Banach *-algebras and hermitian Banach *-algebras for *-algebras with various essentially algebraic restrictions. Chapter 11 restates the previous results in terms of Banach *-algebras and uses them to prove results explicitly involving the complete norm. Chapter 12 is devoted to locally compact groups and the *-algebras related to them.