An operator variant of the maximum principle (Q1082584)

The main result of the paper is the folowing. Let X be a compact topological space, \({\mathcal L}^ a \)Banach algebra, \({\mathcal C}={\mathcal C}(X,{\mathcal L})\) the Banach algebra of all continuous functions on X valued in \({\mathcal L}\) with the uniform norm. For every \(x\in {\mathcal C}\), the spectrum \(\sigma\) (x) of x is the union of the spectrum \(\sigma\) (x(t)) with \(t\in X\). Let \(\Gamma\) be a closed subset on X and let us note \(\sigma\) (x,\(\Gamma)\) the union of the spectra \(\sigma\) (x(t)) with \(t\in \Gamma\). Let A be a closed subalgebra of \({\mathcal C}\) with the property that for any \(x\in A\) the function \(t\to \| x(t)\|\) attains its maximum value on \(\Gamma\). Then the spectrum \(\sigma\) (x) is contained in the polynomial convex hull of \(\sigma\) (x,\(\Gamma)\). An application to topological tensor products of algebras is given.