Finitely generated algebras and algebras of solutions to partial differential equations (Q1107067)

The paper under review, which consitutes part of the doctoral dissertation of its author, is concerned with determining the nature of the analytic structure, if any exists at all, of the maximal ideal spaces of the uniform algebras referred to in the title. (If X is any compact Hausdorff space and if \({\mathcal A}\) is a closed subalgebra of C(X) which separates points in X, then \({\mathcal A}\) is a uniform algebra. The maximal ideal space \(M_{{\mathcal A}}\) of \({\mathcal A}\) may be identified with the set of non-zero complex-valued homomorphisms on \({\mathcal A}\). Then each f in \({\mathcal A}\) extends to \(\hat f\) in \(C(M_{{\mathcal A}})\) by \(\hat f(\phi)=\phi (f)\) for all \(\phi\) in \(M_{{\mathcal A}}.)\) By a finitely generated algebra, the author means a uniform algebra \({\mathcal A}\) equal to the closure in \(C({\bar \Omega}\)) of the algebra generated by a collection \(\{f_ 1,...,f_ k\}\) of smooth functions which separates points in \({\bar \Omega}\). Here \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in \({\mathcal R}^ n\) with smooth boundary. For such an algebra, Theorem 3.2. in the paper shows that, if certain additional conditions are met, including that the map \(F(x)=(f_ 1(x),...,f_ k(x))\) is an imbedding of \({\bar \Omega}\) into \({\mathcal C}^ k\), then either \(\Omega\) has a local foliation at each point in some dense subset such that each f in \({\mathcal A}\) is holomorphic on the leaves of the foliation, or there is an \((n+1)\)-dimensional manifold N, foliated by disks, and a continuous injection \(\phi:N\to M_{{\mathcal A}}\) such that \(\hat f\circ \phi\) is holomorphic on each disk. As for algebras of solutions to PDE's, let \(L=\sum^{n}_{1}a_ j(x)\partial /\partial x_ j\) be a first order linear partial differential operator with coefficients smooth in a neighborhood of \({\bar \Omega}\). Then set \({\mathcal A}\) equal to the closure in \(C({\bar \Omega}\)) of the set \({\mathcal A}_ 0=\{u\in C^ 1({\bar \Omega}):Lu=0\) in \(\Omega\}\). The functions in \({\mathcal A}\) need not separate points in general but, for \(n=3\) and under the additional condition that there exist functions \(f_ 1,...,f_ k\) in \({\mathcal A}_ 0\) and smooth on \({\bar \Omega}\) such that the map \(F(x)(f_ 1(x),...,f_ k(x))\) is an imbedding of \({\bar \Omega}\) into \({\mathcal C}^ k\), Theorem 4.1 shows that one has the presence of one or the other of the same types of analytic structure which occurred in Theorem 3.2. The methods used draw on results from the theory of CR submanifolds and CR functions, including work of Baouendi and Treves and of Hill and Taiani.