Matrix coefficients of unitary representations and associated compactifications

TL;DR

This paper explores the structure of compactifications associated with unitary group representations, characterizes amenability via matrix coefficients, and introduces universal properties of certain group compactifications.

Contribution

It introduces pbren compactifications for unitary representations, characterizes amenability through matrix coefficients, and establishes universality of the compactification related to the universal representation.

Findings

The pbren compactification is a semigroup with the Gelfand spectrum as its boundary.

Amenability is characterized by approximation of the constant function by matrix coefficients.

The universal representation yields a universal compactification among Hilbert space contractions.

Abstract

We study, for a locally compact group $G$, the compactifications $(\pi,G^\pi)$ associated with unitary representations $\pi$, which we call {\it $\pi$-Eberlein compactifications}. We also study the Gelfand spectra $\Phi_{\mathcal{A}}(\pi)}$ of the uniformly closed algebras $\mathcal{A}(\pi)$ generated by matrix coefficients of such $\pi$. We note that $\Phi_{\mathcal{A}(\pi)}\cup\{0\}$ is itself a semigroup and show that the \v{S}ilov boundary of $\mathcal{A}(\pi)$ is $G^\pi$. We study containment relations of various uniformly closed algebras generated by matrix coefficients, and give a new characterisation of amenability: the constant function 1 can be uniformly approximated by matrix coefficients of representations weakly contained in the left regular representation if and only if $G$ is amenable. We show that for the universal representation $\omega$, the compactification $(\omega,G^\omega)$ has a certain universality property: it is universal amongst all compactifications of $G$ which may be embedded as contractions on a Hilbert space, a fact which was also recently proved by Megrelishvili. We illustrate our results with examples including various abelian and compact groups, and the $ax+b$-group. In particular, we witness algebras $\fA(\pi)$, for certain non-self-conjugate $\pi$, as being generalised algebras of analytic functions.