Boolean algebras of projections

Abstract

Bade, in (1), studied Boolean algebras of projections on Banach spaces and showed that a σ-complete Boolean algebra of projections on a Banach space enjoys properties formally similar to those of a Boolean algebra of projections on Hilbert space. (His exposition is reproduced in (7: XVII).) Edwards and Ionescu Tulcea showed that the weakly closed algebra generated by a σ-complete Boolean algebra of projections can be represented as a von Neumann algebra; and that the representation isomorphism can be chosen to be norm, weakly, and strongly bicontinuous on bounded sets (8): Bade's results were then seen to follow from their Hilbert space counterparts. I show here that it is natural to relax the condition of σ-completeness to weak relative compactness; indeed, a Boolean algebra of projections has σ-completion if and only if it is weakly relatively compact (Theorem 1). Then, following the derivation of the theorem of Edwards and Ionescu Tulcea from the Vidav characterisation of abstract C*-algebras (see (9)), I give a result (Theorem 2) which, with its corollary, includes (1: 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, 3.2, 3.3, 4.5).