Range decreasing group homomorphisms and weighted composition operators

We present necessary and sufficient conditions for a group homomorphism between spaces of smooth sections of Lie group bundles to be a weighted composition operator. These results provide new insights into a wide range of problems related to weighted composition operators. Specifically, we prove that the algebraic structure of the space of smooth sections of an algebra bundle, where the typical fiber is a positive dimensional simple unital algebra, completely determines the bundle structure. Furthermore, we derive a homomorphism version of the Shanks-Pursell theorem and identify a class of homomorphisms of multiplicative semigroups between spaces of smooth functions on finite dimensional manifolds, including all isomorphisms. Our approach is based on a method called range decreasing group homomorphisms.