On the cardinality of non-isomorphic intermediate rings of \(C(X)\) (Q2036390)

The authors study ``intermediate rings'', which are subrings of the ring of real valued continuous functions which contains the ring of bounded real valued continuous functions. To each intermediate ring \(A(X)\), it is associated a subspace \(\nu_A(X)\) of the Stone-Čech compactification of \(X\), which is an analogue of the Hewitt realcompactification. Also, they consider \([A(X)]\), the class of intermediate rings with homeomorphic subspaces \(\nu_A(X)\). Some results in this context are obtained, for example: for a locally compact, non-compact but realcompact space \(X\), each class \([A(X)]\) has cardinality greater than \(2^c\); for a first countable noncompact realcompact space \(X\), there exist at least \(2^c\) intermediate subrings of \([A(X)]\), no two of which are isomorphic.