Involutions and trivolutions on second dual of algebras related to locally compact groups and topological semigroups.

We investigate involutions and trivolutions in the second dual of algebras related to a locally compact topological semigroup and the Fourier algebra of a locally compact group. We prove, among the other things, that for a large class of topological semigroups namely, compactly cancellative foundation $$*$$ -semigroup S when it is infinite non-discrete cancellative, $$M_a(S)^{**}$$ does not admit an involution, and $$M_a(S)^{**}$$ has a trivolution with range $$M_a(S)$$ if and only if S is discrete. We also show that when G is an amenable group, the second dual of the Fourier algebra of G admits an involution extending one of the natural involutions of A( G) if and only if G is finite. However, $$A(G)^{**}$$ always admits trivolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]