Structure Spaces for Rings of Continuous Functions with Applications to Realcompactifications
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FUNDAMENTA MATHEMATICAE 152 (1997) Structure spaces for rings of continuous functions with applications to realcompactifications by Lothar R e d l i n (Abington, Penn.) and Saleem W a t s o n (Long Beach, Calif.) Abstract. Let X be a completely regular space and let A(X) be a ring of continuous real-valued functions on X which is closed under local bounded inversion. We show that the structure space of A(X) is homeomorphic to a quotient of the Stone–Cechˇ compactification of X. We use this result to show that any realcompactification of X is homeomorphic to a subspace of the structure space of some ring of continuous functions A(X). 1. Introduction. Let X be a completely regular space and let A(X) be a collection of continuous real-valued functions on X which form a ring under pointwise operations. Two special cases are C(X), the ring of all continuous functions on X, and C∗(X), the ring of bounded continuous functions on X. We study the class of rings of continuous functions which are closed under local bounded inversion (as defined in Section 2). This class includes any ring that contains C∗(X), and any uniformly closed subring of C∗(X), as well as 1 others, including C0 (X), the ring of continuously differentiable functions on a locally compact subset X of R which vanish at infinity (see [1]). Structure spaces for C(X) and C∗(X) have been studied extensively. (See for example [5], where it is shown, by different methods, that the structure space of each ring is isomorphic to βX, the Stone–Cechˇ compactification of X.) We show that for any ring closed under local bounded inversion, the structure space is compact, and is homeomorphic with a quotient of the Stone–Cechˇ compactification βX (Theorem 3.6). Our proofs use a map which assigns a z-filter to every noninvertible f ∈ A(X); this map extends to one from ideals (maximal ideals) to z-filters (z-ultrafilters). For each A(X) we identify a 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 54C40; Secondary 46E25. Key words and phrases: ring of continuous functions, maximal ideal, ultrafilter, real- compactification. [151] 152 L. Redlin and S. Watson subspace υAX of M(A) which we call the A-compactification of X. We show that υAX is a realcompactification of X and that every realcompactification arises in this way (Theorem 4.6). Thus every realcompactification of X is a quotient of a subspace of βX. We identify a class of rings which is in natural one-to-one correspondence with the realcompactifications of X (Theorem 4.7). As an application of our results, we prove an extension of the Banach– Stone theorem: Let X and Y be compact and let A(X) and B(Y ) be closed under local bounded inversion; if A(X) and B(Y ) are isomorphic, then X and Y are homeomorphic. (See the remark following Theorem 4.5.) Rings of continuous functions other than C(X) and C∗(X) are also stud- ied in [1], [6], [7], and [8]. 2. Ideals and z-filters. Let X be a completely regular space and let A(X) be a ring of continuous real-valued functions on X.A zero set in X is a set of the form Z(f) = {x ∈ X : f(x) = 0} for some f ∈ C(X); the complement of a zero set is called a cozero set. We define Z[A(X)] = {Z(f): f ∈ A(X)}; the collection Z[C(X)] of all zero sets is denoted by Z[X]. We always assume that the rings A(X) that we consider contain the constants and separate points and closed sets in X. We make this assumption because of the following easily proved fact: Z[A(X)] is a base for the closed sets in X iff A(X) separates the points and closed sets of X. If f ∈ A(X) and E is a cozero set in X, then f is E-regular if there exists g ∈ A(X) such that fg|E ≡ 1; that is, f is locally invertible on E. To each f ∈ A(X) we attach a collection ZA(f) of subsets of X defined by c ZA(f) = {E ∈ Z[X]: f is E -regular}. Clearly, ZA(fg) ⊂ ZA(f) ∩ ZA(g). It can be shown, as in [9], Theorem 1, that ZA(f) is a z-filterS on X iff f is not invertible in A(X). For S ⊂ A(X) we write ZA[S] = f∈S ZA(f). It was shown in [9] and [3] that if A(X) is a uniformly closed subring that contains or is contained in C∗(X), then for an ideal I in A(X), ZA[I] is a z-filter on X. The proofs there depend on the assumption that A(X) is uniformly closed. In Theorem 2.1 below we show that this is in fact true for any subring of C(X). The inverse of the map ← ZA, considered as a set map, is denoted by ZA and defined by ← ZA [S] = {f ∈ A(X): ZA(f) ⊂ S}, where S is a collection of zero sets in X. It follows immediately from the ← ← definition that ZA [ZA[S]] ⊃ S and ZA[ZA [S]] ⊂ S for all S ⊂ A(X) and S ⊂ Z[X]. For a z-filter F on X we define IA[F] = {f ∈ A(X) : lim fh = 0 for all h ∈ A(X)}, F where limF f denotes the limit of the filter base f(F). Clearly, IA[F] is an ideal of A(X). Rings of continuous functions 153 Theorem 2.1. (a) If I is an ideal in A(X) then ZA[I] is a z-filter on X. ← (b) If F is a z-filter on X then IA[F]⊂ ZA [F]. P r o o f. (a) Clearly, ∅ 6∈ ZA[I], because I contains no invertible elements. If F ∈ Z[X] and F ⊃ E ∈ ZA[I], then F ∈ ZA[I]. Now let E, F ∈ ZA[I], and choose f, g ∈ I locally invertible on Ec and F c respectively. Then there exist h, k ∈ A(X) such that fh|Ec ≡ 1 and gk|F c ≡ 1. Let w = fh + gk − fhgk. Then w ∈ I, and since w|Ec∪F c ≡ 1, it follows that w is locally invertible c c c c c on E ∪ F . Thus (E ∪ F ) = E ∩ F ∈ ZA[I], and so ZA[I] is a z-filter. (b) For f ∈ IA[F] we show that for every E ∈ ZA(f) there exists F ∈ F such that F ⊂ E. If no such F exists, then F ∩ Ec 6= ∅ for all F ∈ F. Since E ∈ ZA(f) there exists h ∈ A(X) such that hf|Ec ≡ 1. But then 1 is a cluster point of {fh(F ): F ∈ F}, contradicting the hypothesis that ← limF fh = 0. Thus ZA(f) ⊂ F; that is, f ∈ ZA [F]. ← If F is a z-filter or even a z-ultrafilter on X, then ZA [F] is not necessarily an ideal. For example, in the ring P (R) of polynomials on R, for any z- ← filter F, the set ZA [F] consists of all polynomials other than the nonzero ← constants. We now introduce a class of subrings for which ZA [F] is an ideal for every z-filter F. A subring A(X) of C(X) is closed under local bounded inversion if every element of A(X) that is bounded away from 0 on a cozero set E is locally invertible on E; that is, if f(x) ≥ c > 0 for all x ∈ E, then f is E-regular in A(X). Any subring of C(X) that contains C∗(X) is closed under local bounded inversion, and according to [3], Lemma 1.2(c), so also is any uniformly closed subring of C∗(X). However, a subring of C(X) that is closed under local bounded inversion need not be comparable to C∗(X). (Consider, for example, the ring of all continuous functions f : R → R for which limx→∞ f(x) exists.) In the study of C(X) the zero sets Z(f) play a central role. The following result gives a relationship between the z-filter ZA(f) and the zero set Z(f). PropositionT 2.2. If A(X) is closed under local bounded inversion, then Z(f) = ZA(f). P r o o f. Suppose y 6∈ Z(f) and without loss of generality assume that f(y) > 0. Choose a cozero set neighborhood G of y such that f(x) ≥ c > 0 c for all x ∈TG. By hypothesis f is locally invertibleT on G and so G ∈ ZA(f). Thus y 6∈ ZA(f). This shows that Z(f) ⊃ ZA(f). The other inclusion is immediate. Theorem 2.3. Let A(X) be closed under local bounded inversion. If F ← ← is a z-filter on X then ZA [F] = IA[F]; in particular, ZA [F] is an ideal in A(X). P r o o f. We claim that if f ∈ A(X) and F ⊃ ZA(f), then limF fh = 0 for all h ∈ A(X). To show this, let f be a noninvertible element of A(X). 154 L. Redlin and S. Watson We show that limZA(f) f = 0. Let [−ε, ε] be a neighborhood of 0 in R and −1 let Eε = f ([−ε, ε]). Set F1 = {x ∈ X : f(x) > ε} and F2 = {x ∈ X : f(x) < −ε}. Since A(X) is closed under local bounded inversion, f is F1-regular and F2- c regular, and hence (F1 ∪F2)-regular ([9], Lemma 1(b)).