Nonstandard Ideals from Nonstandard Dual Pairs for L1(ω) and l1(ω)

The Banach convolution algebras l1(ω) and their continuous counterparts L1(ℝ+, ω) are much studied, because (when the submultiplicative weight function ω is radical) they are pretty much the prototypic examples of commutative radical Banach algebras. In cases of “nice” weights ω, the only closed ideals they have are the obvious, or “standard”, ideals. But in the general case, a brilliant but very difficult paper of Marc Thomas shows that nonstandard ideals exist in l1(ω). His proof was successfully exported to the continuous case L1(ℝ+, ω) by Dales and McClure, but remained difficult. In this paper we first present a small improvement: a new and easier proof of the existence of nonstandard ideals in l1(ω) and L1(ℝ+, ω). The new proof is based on the idea of a “nonstandard dual pair” which we introduce. We are then able to make a much larger improvement: we find nonstandard ideals in L1(ℝ+, ω) containing functions whose supports extend all the way down to zero in ℝ+, thereby solving what has become a notorious problem in the area.