The ideal envelope of an operator algebra.pdf

a r X i v : m a t h / 0 1 1 1 1 2 2 v 1 [ m a t h .O A ] 9 N o v 2 0 0 1 THE IDEAL ENVELOPE OF AN OPERATOR ALGEBRA DAVID P. BLECHER AND MASAYOSHI KANEDA Abstract. A left ideal of any C?-algebra is an example of an operator algebra with a right contractive approximate identity (r.c.a.i.). Conversely, we show here and in [6] that operator algebras with r.c.a.i. should be studied in terms of a certain left ideal of a C?-algebra. We study operator algebras and their multiplier algebras from the perspective of ‘Hamana theory’ and using the multiplier algebras introduced by the first author. *This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Revision of Oct 8, 2001. 1 2 DAVID P. BLECHER AND MASAYOSHI KANEDA 1. Introduction and notation A left ideal of any C?-algebra is an example of an operator algebra with a right contractive approximate identity. Conversely, we study operator algebras with right contractive approximate identity in terms of a certain left ideal of a C?-algebra. A (concrete) operator algebra is a subalgebra of B(H), for some Hilbert space H . More abstractly, an operator algebra will be an algebra A with a norm defined on the space Mn(A) of n× n matrices with entries in A, for each n ∈ N, such that there exists a completely isometric1 homomorphism A → B(H) for some Hilbert space H . In this paper all our operator algebras and spaces will be taken to be complete. We shall say that an operator algebra is unital if it has a two-sided contractive identity. In the present paper we are concerned with operator algebras with a one-sided (usually right) contractive approximate identity. We shall abbreviate ‘right (resp. left) contractive approximate identity’ to ‘r.c.a.i.’ (resp. ‘l.c.a.i.’). In §2 of our paper we consider a certain ‘transference principle’, which can allow one to deduce many general results about operator algebras with r.c.a.i., from results about left ideals in a C?-algebra (see the companion paper [6]). Namely