TITLE: Ideal characterization of almost convergence
QUESTION [9 upvotes]: $\bullet$  A real sequence $x=(x_n)_n$ is called convergent to $\alpha$ in usual sense if for any $\epsilon>0$ the set $\{n\in\mathbb N:|x_n-\alpha|\geq\epsilon\}$ is finite.
$\bullet$ A real sequence $x=(x_n)_n$ is called statistically convergent to $\alpha$ if for any $\epsilon>0$ the set $\{n\in\mathbb N:|x_n-\alpha|\geq\epsilon\}$ has natural density $0$. The natural density $d$ of $A\subset\mathbb N$ is defined by $d(A)=\lim\limits_{n\to\infty}\frac{|A\cap\{1,2,\dots,n\}|}{n}$, (provided the limit exists) where $|A|$ denotes the cardinality of $A$. 
$\bullet$ A bounded real sequences $x=(x_n)_n$ is said to be almost convergent to $\alpha$ if all the Banach limit functionals give an unique value for the sequence $x$.
A family $\mathcal I$ of subsets of $\mathbb N$ is said to be an ideal in $\mathbb N$ if 
(i) $A,B\in \mathcal I$ $\implies $ $A\cup B\in \mathcal I$
(ii) $A\in \mathcal I$ and $B\subset A$ $\implies$ $B\in \mathcal I$
$\bullet$ A real sequence $x=(x_n)_n$ is called $\mathcal I$-convergent to $\alpha$ in usual sense if for any $\epsilon>0$ the set $\{n\in\mathbb N:|x_n-\alpha|\geq\epsilon\}\in \mathcal I$.   
$$\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots\dots$$
$\mathcal I_f=\{A\subset\mathbb N: A \text{ is finite}\}$ and $\mathcal I_d=\{A\subset\mathbb N: d(A)=0\}$ become ideals in $\mathbb N$. Moreover, $\mathcal I_f$-convergence and $\mathcal I_d$-convergence coincide with usual convergence and statistical convergence respectively. But, what is the ideal in the case of almost convergence?
My Question : Find the ideal $\mathcal I$ for which $\mathcal I$-convergence coincides with the almost convergence. Is it available in literature?

REPLY [2 votes]: A slightly different argument using the sequence $x=(1,0,1,0,1,0,\dots)$.$\newcommand{\I}{\mathcal I}\newcommand{\Ilim}{\operatorname{\I-lim}}\newcommand{\Flim}{\operatorname{\mathcal F-lim}}\newcommand{\Glim}{\operatorname{\mathcal G-lim}}$
This sequence is almost convergent to $1/2$. At the same time, it is not difficult to show that if this sequence has $\I$-limit of some ideal $\I$, then the $\I$-limit can only be $0$ or $1$.

We can use the fact that $\I$-limit of a sequence is a cluster point of that sequence. (This holds for any admissible ideal, i.e., for any ideal which contains all finite sets. If we allow also non-admissible ideals, then we can get cluster points or terms of the sequence as limits.)
For $\I$-convergence we have multiplicativity, i.e., $\Ilim (x_ny_n)=\Ilim x_n\cdot\Ilim y_n$. In particular, for our sequence $x$ we have $x^2=x$. Consequently, if $L$ is an $\I$-limit, then we get $L^2=L$.  


This is basically just a reformulation of Lorenz's criterion for almost convergent sequence, but since you're looking at connection between almost convergent ideals, I'll mention that a sequence is almost convergent to $L$ if and only if
$$\Flim_n \Glim_k \frac{x_k+\dots+x_{k+n-1}}n=L$$ for any free ultrafilters $\mathcal F$, $\mathcal G$.
You can check the section on almost convergent sequences of the paper
Jerison, Meyer, The set of all generalized limits of bounded sequences, Can. J. Math. 9, 79-89 (1957). ZBL0077.31004, MR83697. I have notes on some part of the paper where the results are expressed using ultrafilters (rather than using nets in Stone-Čech compactification) available here: notes (Wayback Machine), slides (Wayback Machine).