7. Wiener propertyLet us recall the follow<strong>in</strong>g def<strong>in</strong>ition (see [Fe.Gr.Lei.Lu.Mo.]):7.1. Def<strong>in</strong>ition: Let A be a Banach ∗-algebra. We say that A has the Wiener property(W ) if for every proper closed two-sided ideal I of A, there exists a topologically irreducible∗-representation π of A such that I ⊂ kerπ. If A is of the form L 1 (G) for some locallycompact <strong>group</strong> G, we also say that the <strong>group</strong> G has the Wiener property.7.2. Examples: a) In ([Mi.Mo.]) it is shown that if G is a connected, simply connected,nilpotent Lie <strong>group</strong> and if ω is a polynomial weight on G, then L 1 (G, ω) has the Wienerproperty.b) In ([Fe.Gr.Lei.Lu.Mo.]) it is shown that if G is a compactly generated, locally compact<strong>group</strong> with polynomial growth and if ω is a weight on G that is at most sub-exponential,then the algebra L 1 (G, ω) has the Wiener property.c) For abelian <strong>group</strong>s, Domar ([Do.]) has shown that L 1 (G, ω) has the Wiener property if∑ +∞ ln(ω(x n ))n=1 n< +∞ for all x ∈ G. This is <strong>in</strong> particular the case if ∑ +∞ ln(s(n))2 n=1 n< +∞.2For G = R, Vretblad ([Vr.]) even shows the converse, for a certa<strong>in</strong> type of weights: Ifω(x) = exp( π 2 |x|q(x)) with q decreas<strong>in</strong>g on R + and ω <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g on R + and if L 1 (R, ω)has the Wiener property, then ∑ +∞ ln(ω(nx))n=1 n< +∞ (we write nx <strong>in</strong>stead of x n as G = R)2for every x ∈ R (see the <strong>in</strong>troduction for more details).In this section we shall study the Wiener property for <strong>algebras</strong> of the form L 1 (G, ω),where G is a compactly generated, locally compact <strong>group</strong> with polynomial growth and ωis a weight on G satisfy<strong>in</strong>g condition (BDna), and hence such that L 1 (G, ω) is a symmetric∗-algebra that admits functional <strong>calculus</strong>. We shall first prove that <strong>in</strong> this situation theset m(∅) conta<strong>in</strong>s functions ϕ{f s } satisfy<strong>in</strong>g‖ϕ{f s } ∗ F − F ‖ ω → 0<strong>in</strong> L 1 (G, ω), for all F ∈ C c (G). The techniques of the proof will be the same as those used<strong>in</strong> ([Fe.Gr.Lei.Lu.Mo.]) for the Wiener property, adapted to the new method of functional<strong>calculus</strong>.7.3. Let (f s ) s be a bounded approximate identity <strong>in</strong> L 1 (G, ω) such that, for all s,f s = f ∗ s , ‖f s ‖ ω ≤ C, ‖f s ‖ 1 = 1, suppf s ⊂ V s ⊂ K,where C is a positive constant, V s a compact symmetric neighbourhood of e <strong>in</strong> G and Ka fixed compact set. We shall show that there exists a periodic function ϕ ∈ Φ of period2π with ϕ(1) = 1, ϕ ≡ 0 <strong>in</strong> a neighbourhood of 0, such thatϕ{f s } = ∑ n∈Zˆϕ(n)u(nf s )32
is converg<strong>in</strong>g for all s and such that‖ϕ{f s } ∗ F − F ‖ ω → 0for all cont<strong>in</strong>uous functions F with compact support <strong>in</strong> G. Moreover the functions ϕ{f s }are conta<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> m(∅) by construction.In fact, let’s choose ϕ ∈ Φ such that ϕ(1) = 1. Then‖ϕ{f s } ∗ F − F ‖ ω = ‖ ∑ n∈Zˆϕ(n)[e <strong>in</strong>f s∗ F − e <strong>in</strong> F ]‖ ω .As the functions f s are uniformly bounded <strong>in</strong> L 1 (G, ω), it is easy to check that for everyfixed n,e <strong>in</strong>f s∗ F → e <strong>in</strong> F<strong>in</strong> L 1 (G, ω) as s → ∞. So, for any fixed N ∈ N, we have∑|n|≤Nˆϕ(n)[e <strong>in</strong>f s∗ F − e <strong>in</strong> F ] → 0<strong>in</strong> L 1 (G, ω). Next we have to show that we may choose ϕ such that, for any ε > 0, thereexists N ∈ N such that‖ ∑ˆϕ(n)[e <strong>in</strong>f s∗ F − e <strong>in</strong> F ]‖ ω ≤ ∑∑| ˆϕ(n)|‖e <strong>in</strong>f s∗ F ‖ ω + | ˆϕ(n)e <strong>in</strong> |‖F ‖ ω|n|>N< ε,|n|>N|n|>N<strong>in</strong>dependently of s. Suppose that we had already determ<strong>in</strong>ed ϕ and N 1 such that∑|n|>N 1| ˆϕ(n)|‖e <strong>in</strong>f s∗ F ‖ ω < ε 2 ,for all s, then (as ∑ n∈Z ˆϕ(n)e<strong>in</strong> = ϕ(1) = 1 converges) we can choose N ≥ N 1 such that|∑|n|>Nˆϕ(n)e <strong>in</strong> |‖F ‖ ω < ε 2 .Thus it suffices to show (∗). Accord<strong>in</strong>g to (3.12.)(∗)‖e <strong>in</strong>f s∗ F ‖ ω ≤ K 2 (1 + |n|)(1 + |n| 2 ) Q 2 s(|n|)2 ln(ln |n|) e K 3(with constants K 2 and K 3 given byK 2 = 2 Q 2 K12 (1 + q)Q2 s(q)‖F ‖2 + ‖F ‖ ωK 3 = 2e (eC′p )‖f s ‖ ω,33|n|(ln |n|) C )