Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2009
Two commutative Banach algebras A and B are said to be similar if there exists a Banach algebra D such that [xD]− = D for some x in D, and two one-to-one continuous homomorphisms φ:D→A and ψ:D→B such that φ(D) is a dense ideal of A and ψ(D) a dense ideal of B.
We prove in this paper that the Volterra algebra is similar to A0/e-z A0 where A0 is the commutative uniform, separable Banach algebra of all continuous functions on the closed right-hand half plane , analytic on H and vanishing at infinity. We deduce from this result that multiplication by an element of A0/e-z A0 is a compact mapping.