From HandWiki - Reading time: 1 min
A Banach *-algebra A is a Banach algebra over the field of complex numbers, together with a map * : A → A, called involution, that has the following properties:
In other words, a Banach *-algebra is a Banach algebra over which is also a *-algebra.
In most natural examples, one also has that the involution is isometric, i.e.
Some authors include this isometric property in the definition of a Banach *-algebra.