In this paper, we consider the problem of characterizing positive definite functions on compact two-point homogeneous spaces cross locally compact abelian groups. For a locally compact abelian group $G$ with dual group $\widehat{G}$, a compact two-point homogeneous space $\mathbb{H}$ with normalized geodesic distance $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ and a profile function $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}:[-1,1]\times G\rightarrow \mathbb{C}$ satisfying certain continuity and integrability assumptions, we show that the positive definiteness of the kernel $((x,u),(y,v))\in (\mathbb{H}\times G)^{2}\mapsto \unicode[STIX]{x1D719}(\cos \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}(x,y),uv^{-1})$ is equivalent to the positive definiteness of the Fourier transformed kernels $(x,y)\in \mathbb{H}^{2}\mapsto \widehat{\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}}_{\cos \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}(x,y)}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE})$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}\in \widehat{G}$, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{t}(u)=\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}(t,u)$, $u\in G$. We also provide some results on the strict positive definiteness of the kernel.

We consider the notion of the graph product of actions of discrete groups $\{G_{v}\}$ on a $C^{\ast }$-algebra ${\mathcal{A}}$ and show that under suitable commutativity conditions the graph product action $\star _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}_{v}:\star _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}G_{v}\curvearrowright {\mathcal{A}}$ has the Haagerup property if each action $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}_{v}:G_{v}\curvearrowright {\mathcal{A}}$ possesses the Haagerup property. This generalizes the known results on graph products of groups with the Haagerup property. To accomplish this, we introduce the graph product of multipliers associated to the actions and show that the graph product of positive-definite multipliers is positive definite. These results have impacts on left-transformation groupoids and give an alternative proof of a known result for coarse embeddability. We also record a cohomological characterization of the Haagerup property for group actions.

The notion of positive-definite functions over locally compact quantum groups was recently introduced and studied by Daws and Salmi. Based on this work, we generalize various well-known results about positive-definite functions over groups to the quantum framework. Among these are theorems on “square roots” of positive-definite functions, comparison of various topologies, positive-definite measures and characterizations of amenability, and the separation property with respect to compact quantum subgroups.

We show that the assignment of the (left) completely bounded multiplier algebra $M_{cb}^{l}({{L}^{1}}(\mathbb{G}))$ to a locally compact quantum group $\mathbb{G}$, and the assignment of the intrinsic group, form functors between appropriate categories. Morphisms of locally compact quantum groups can be described by Hopf $*$-homomorphisms between universal ${{C}^{*}}$-algebras, by bicharacters, or by special sorts of coactions. We show that the whole theory of completely bounded multipliers can be lifted to the universal ${{C}^{*}}$-algebra level, and that the different pictures of both multipliers (reduced, universal, and as centralisers) and morphisms then interact in extremely natural ways. The intrinsic group of a quantum group can be realised as a class of multipliers, and so our techniques immediately apply. We also show how to think of the intrinsic group using the universal ${{C}^{*}}$-algebra picture, and then, again, how the differing views on the intrinsic group interact naturally with morphisms. We show that the intrinsic group is the “maximal classical” quantum subgroup of a locally compact quantum group, that it is even closed in the strong Vaes sense, and that the intrinsic group functor is an adjoint to the inclusion functor from locally compact groups to quantum groups.

In a paper from 1976, Berg, Christensen, and Ressel prove that the closure of the cone of sums of squares $\sum{\mathbb{R}{{\left[ \underline{X} \right]}^{2}}}$ in the polynomial ring $\mathbb{R}\left[ \underline{X} \right]\,:=\,\mathbb{R}\left[ {{X}_{1}},\,.\,.\,.\,,\,{{X}_{n}} \right]$ in the topology induced by the $~{{\ell }_{1}}$-norm is equal to $\text{Pos}\left( {{\left[ -1,\,1 \right]}^{n}} \right)$, the cone consisting of all polynomials that are non-negative on the hypercube ${{\left[ -1,\,1 \right]}^{n}}$. The result is deduced as a corollary of a general result, established in the same paper, which is valid for any commutative semigroup. In later work, Berg and Maserick and Berg, Christensen, and Ressel establish an even more general result, for a commutative semigroup with involution, for the closure of the cone of sums of squares of symmetric elements in the weighted $~{{\ell }_{1}}$-seminorm topology associated with an absolute value. In this paper we give a new proof of these results, which is based on Jacobi’s representation theorem from 2001. At the same time, we use Jacobi’s representation theorem to extend these results from sums of squares to sums of $2d$-powers, proving, in particular, that for any integer $d\,\ge \,1$, the closure of the cone of sums of $2d$-powers $\sum \mathbb{R}{{\left[ \underline{X} \right]}^{2d}}$ in the $\mathbb{R}\left[ \underline{X} \right]$ topology induced by the $~{{\ell }_{1}}$-norm is equal to $\text{Pos}\left( {{\left[ -1,\,1 \right]}^{n}} \right)$.

Let $S$ be a subset of an amenable group $G$ such that $e\,\in \,S$ and ${{S}^{-1}}\,=\,S$. The main result of this paper states that if the Cayley graph of $G$ with respect to $S$ has a certain combinatorial property, then every positive definite operator-valued function on $S$ can be extended to a positive definite function on $G$. Several known extension results are obtained as corollaries. New applications are also presented.

In the first half of this paper, all the limits of irreducible characters of Gn = 𝔖n(T) as n → ∞ are calculated. The set of all continuous limit functions on G = 𝔖 ∞(T) is exactly equal to the set of all characters of G determined in [HH6]. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a series of irreducible characters of Gn to have a continuous limit and also such a condition to have a discontinuous limit. In the second half, we study the limits of characters of certain induced representations of Gn which are usually reducible. The limits turn out to be characters of G, and we analyse which of irreducible components are responsible to these limits.

Our main result is that a finitely generated nilpotent group has no isometric action on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space with dense orbits. In contrast, we construct such an action with a finitely generated metabelian group.

Given a sequence $\{A_n\}_{n\in\mathbb{Z}_+}$ of bounded linear operators between complex Hilbert spaces $\mathcal{H}$ and $\mathcal{K}$ we characterize the existence of a contraction (resp. isometry, unitary operator, shift) $T$ on $\mathcal{K}$ such that \[A_n=T^nA_0,\quad n\in\mathbb{Z}_+.\] Such moment problems are motivated by their connection with the dilatability of positive operator measures having applications in the theory of stochastic processes.

The solutions, based on the fact that a certain operator function attached to $T$ is positive definite on $\mathbb{Z}$, extend the ones given by Sebestyén in [18], [19] or, recently, by Jabłoński and Stochel in [8]. Some applications, containing new characterizations for isometric, unitary operators, orthogonal projections or commuting pairs having regular dilation, conclude the paper.

In this paper we make use of semigroup methods on the space of compactly supported measures to obtain a Bochner representation for α-bounded positive-definite functions on a commutative hypergroup.

In this paper we make use of semigroup methods on the space of compactly supported probability measures to obtain a complete Lévy-Khinchin representation for negative definite functions on a commutative hypergroup. In addition we obtain representation theorems for completely monotone and completely alternating functions. The techniques employed here also lead to considerable simplification of the proofs of known results on positive definite and negative definite functions on hypergroups.