A spectral characterization of Riesz homomorphisms between complex Riesz algebras (Q2012572)

\textit{S. Kowalski} and \textit{Z. Słodkowski} [Stud. Math. 67, 215--223 (1980; Zbl 0456.46041)] proved that a complex-valued function \(f\) on a Banach algebra \(A\) is a multiplicative linear functional if and only if it satisfies the following conditions: \(f(0)=0\) and \(f(a)-f(b)\in\sigma(a-b)\) for all \(a\) and \(b\in A\) (\(\sigma(a)\) denotes the spectrum of \(a\)). In the paper under review, the authors present an analogous result for complex Riesz algebras. Namely, they show that a complex-valued function \(\phi\) on a complex Riesz algebra \(\mathfrak A\) with a positive identity \(e\) is a unital Riesz homomorphism if and only if \(\phi(a)-\phi(b)\in\sigma(P_ea-P_eb)\) for all \(a\) and \(b\in{\mathfrak A}\), where \(P_e\) denotes the order projection onto the center \(\{e\}^{dd}\) of the algebra \(\mathfrak A\). This result is applied to study local and 2-local Riesz homomorphisms on complex Riesz algebras.