Crossed products of Banach algebras. I

Abstract

We construct a crossed product Banach algebra from a Banach algebra dynamical system $(A,G,\alpha)$ and a given uniformly bounded class $R$ of continuous covariant Banach space representations of that system. If $A$ has a bounded left approximate identity, and $R$ consists of non-degenerate continuous covariant representations only, then the non-degenerate bounded representations of the crossed product are in bijection with the non-degenerate $R$-continuous covariant representations of the system. This bijection, which is the main result of the paper, is also established for involutive Banach algebra dynamical systems and then yields the well-known representation theoretical correspondence for the crossed product $C^*$-algebra as commonly associated with a $C^*$-algebra dynamical system as a special case. Taking the algebra $A$ to be the base field, the crossed product construction provides, for a given non-empty class of Banach spaces, a Banach algebra with a relatively simple structure and with the property that its non-degenerate contractive representations in the spaces from that class are in bijection with the isometric strongly continuous representations of $G$ in those spaces. This generalizes the notion of a group $C^*$-algebra, and may likewise be used to translate issues concerning group representations in a class of Banach spaces to the context of a Banach algebra, simpler than $L^1(G)$, where more functional analytic structure is present.