Derivations on universally complete \(f\)-algebras (Q475561)

\textit{I. M. Singer} and \textit{J. Wermer} [Math. Ann. 129, 260--264 (1955; Zbl 0067.35101)] showed that every bounded derivation on a commutative Banach algebra maps into the radical and they conjectured that the condition of boundedness for the derivation was not necessary. This conjecture has finally been proved by \textit{M. P. Thomas} [Ann. Math. (2) 128, No. 3, 435--460 (1988; Zbl 0681.47016)]. Motivated by the interest in range inclusion results for derivations on Banach algebras, the authors of this paper give a non-Banach Singer-Wermer version for derivations acting on universally complete \(f\)-algebras. As results, they prove that, if \(A\) is a universally complete \(f\)-algebra and \(M\) is a uniformly closed maximal ring ideal of \(A\), then \(M\) is invariant under any derivation \(D\) on \(A\) and \(D\) maps into \(\mathrm{Clorad}(A),\) where \(\mathrm{Clorad}(A)\equiv \bigcap_{M \in m(A)} M,\) and \(m(A)\) denotes the set of all uniformly closed maximal ring ideals of \(A\). Furthermore, the authors present some additional systematic theorems concerned with the study of weakly locally one-dimensional spaces by using the range inclusion theorems for derivations acting on universally complete \(f\)-algebras.