Riesz endomorphisms of Banach algebras

Let B be a unital commutative semi-simple Banach algebra. We study endomorphisms of B which are simultaneously Riesz operators. Clearly compact and power compact endomorphisms are Riesz. Several general theorems about Riesz endomorphisms are proved, and these results are then applied to the question of when Riesz endomorphisms of certain algebras are necessarily power compact. This research was supported by EPSRC grant GR/S16515/01