Extension of continuous functions on product spaces, Bohr Compactification and Almost Periodic Functions

Abstract

The Bohr compactification is a well known construction for (topological) groups and semigroups. Recently, this notion has been investigated for arbitrary structures in \cite{har_kun:bohr_discrete} where the Bohr compactification is defined, using a set-theoretical approach, as the maximal compactification which is compatible with the structure involved. Here, we give a characterization of the continuous functions defined on a product space that can be extended continuously to certain compactifications of the product space. As a consequence, the Bohr compactification of an arbitrary topological structure is obtained as the Gelfand space of the commutative Banach algebra of all almost periodic functions. Previously, almost periodic functions $f$ are defined in terms of translates of $f$ with no reference to any compactification of the underlying structure. An application is given to the representation of isometries defined between spaces of almost periodic functions.