On a class of Banach algebras associated to harmonic analysis on locally compact groups and semigroups

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present some old and recent results for the class of $F$-algebras which include most classes of Banach algebras that are important in abstract harmonic analysis. We also introduce a subclass of the class of $F$-algebras, called normal $F$-algebras, that captures better the measure algebras and the (reduced) Fourier-Stieltjes algebras, and use this to give new characterisations the reduced Fourier-Stieltjes algebras of discrete groups.