We solve three open problems raised in Lau and รlger, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 366 (2014), no. 8, 4151-4171 regarding invariant and natural projections. More precisely, we show that for a commutative ๐ถ * -algebra ๎ญ, every natural projection on ๎ญ * is invariant under the canonical action of ๎ญ if and only if ๎ญ is scattered. We exhibit further classes of Banach algebras, comprising important examples from abstract harmonic analysis, for which the two types of projections differ, by establishing links of the latter property to almost periodicity, Arens regularity, and amenability. Moreover, for any commutative semisimple Banach algebra ๎ญ with a bounded approximate identity (BAI), we characterize the ๐ค * -continuous natural projections on ๎ญ * as the adjoints of idempotent multipliers on ๎ญ. We also prove that โ is the only (non-zero) commutative semisimple Banach algebra ๎ญ with a BAI such that every ๐ค * -continuous projection on ๎ญ * is natural.M S C 2 0 2 0 43A20, 46H25, 46J05, 46J40, 46L05 (primary)
INTRODUCTION AND PRELIMINARIESInvariant projections play an important role in amenability theory, and in the study of ideals and multipliers in Banach algebras and abstract harmonic analysis; see, for example, [1,7,11,15,18,19,22,25,27]. Here, in the general setting, one considers a Banach algebra ๎ญ, and a projection on the dual ๎ญ * (that is, a bounded linear map ๐ โถ ๎ญ * โ ๎ญ * such that ๐ 2 = ๐) which is invariant under