In this paper we establish a characterization of abelian compact Hausdorff semigroups with unique idempotent and ideal retraction property. We also introduce a function algebra on a semitopological semigroup whose associated semigroup compactification is universal withrespect to these properties.

1. I n t r o d u c t i o n . In [4], De Groot and Aarts constructed Hausdorff compactifications of topological spaces to obtain a new intrinsic characterization of complete regularity. These compactifications were called GA compactifications in [5] and [7]. A characterization of complete regularity was earlier given by Fr ink [3], by means of Wallman compactifications, a method which led to the...

We study the range transformations 0p(/fD, Reß) and Op(/fD, B) for Banach function algebras A and B. As a special instance, the harmonicity of functions in Op(/fD, Re A) for a nontrivial function algebra A is established and is compared with previous investigations of Op( An, A) and Op((Re/l);, (Re/1)) for an interval /. In §2 we present some results on Op(AD, B) and use them to show that funct...