Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
1. Introduction. If G is a locally compact Hausdorff topological group, and μ is (left) Haar measure on G, then we denote by ℬ(G) the class of all Borel subsets of G having finite measure, and by VG the set {μ(E): E ∊ ℬ(G)} of real numbers. The product set function of G, ΦG: VG × VG → VG, is defined (see (4) and (5)) by
and, for each u, v ∈ VG, we call a pair (E, F) of Borel subsets of G a critical (u, v)-pair, if μ(E) = u, μ(F) = v, and μ*(EF) = ΦG(u, v). We denote the class of all critical (u, v)-pairs by and we write ℰG for .