F-Rings of Continuous Functions I

Abstract

It is well known (2, 4) that the ring of all real (complex) continuous functions on a compact Hausdorff space can be characterized algebraically as a Banach algebra which satisfies certain additional intrinsic conditions. It might be expected that rings of all continuous functions on other topological spaces also have algebraic characterizations. The main purpose of this note is to discuss two such characterizations. In both cases the characterizations are given in the terms of the theory of F-brings (1). In one case a characterization is given for the ring of all (real) continuous functions on a generalized P-space, that is, a zero-dimensional topological space in which the class of open-closed sets forms a σ-algebra. A Hausdorff generalized P-space is a P-space in the terminology of (3). In the other case a theorem of Sikorski (6) is employed to give a characterization of the ring of all (real) continuous functions on an upper X1-compact P-space.