Real contractive projections on commutative C\(^*\)-algebras (Q1374873)

A complex (Banach) Jordan triple is a Banach space equipped with a ternary product (Jordan triple product). Such Jordan triples are essentially geometric objects in that the linear isometries between them are exactly the linear maps preserving the triple product. A theory of real Jordan triples includes the complex triples regarded as real spaces, the real \(C^*\)-algebras, the bounded operators between real (or quaternionic) Hilbert spaces. In the real theory however, the following two main questions, although true in the complex case, remain open: Does a (real) linear isometry preserve the triple product? Does the range of a (real) contractive projection on a (real) Jordan triple have a ternary product structure? In some particular (commutative) cases, the above problems have been considered. In this paper, the authors begin a detailed study of the structure of real commutative \(J^*\)-algebras which may give some insight into the real theory of Jordan triples as well as being a step towards the solutions of the above question in the noncommutative case.