Invertibles in topological rings: a new approach (Q2057946)

This paper deals with rings and algebras, introducing some new notions mainly algebraically and then using topology for obtaining the proofs. The topology used in the paper is mainly induced by a norm or a semi-norm. More general topologies are unfortunately not considered. The authors consider all rings to be associative and unitary and all algebras to be real, except for \({}^*\)-algebras and uniform algebras, which are considered complex. However, some of the results (see the definition of a spectrum) need complex algebras and some results remain true for non-unital case, as well.\par Let \(R\) be a ring and \(s\in R\). Then \(ld(s)\) is the set of all left divisors of \(s\), i.e., the set of all \(r\in R\) such that there exists \(t\in R\backslash\{\theta_R\}\) with \(rt=s\). The set \(rd(s)\) of all right divisors of \(s\) is defined analogously. The set of all invertible elements of \(R\) is denoted by \({\mathcal U}(R)\).\par The authors introduce the following notions for an element \(a\) of a complex \({}^*\)-algebra \(A\), generalizing analogous notions from the operator theory:\par 1) \textit{the point spectrum of \(a\)} is the set\par \(\sigma_p(A)=\{\lambda\in{\mathbb C}: a-\lambda 1_A\in ld(\theta_A)\}\);\par 2) \textit{the continuous spectrum of \(a\)} is the set\par \(\sigma_c(a)=\{\lambda\in{\mathbb C}: a-\lambda 1_A\not\in ld(\theta_A)\cup {\mathcal U}(A)\) and \((a-\lambda1_A)^*\not\in ld(\theta_A)\}\);\par 3) \textit{the residual spectrum of \(a\)} is the set\par \(\sigma_r(a)=\{\lambda\in{\mathbb C}: a-\lambda 1_A\not\in ld(\theta_A)\) and \((a-\lambda 1_A)^*\in ld(\theta_A)\}\).\par The authors show that the spectrum of an element \(a\in A\) is the union of its point spectrum, continuous spectrum and residual spectrum.\par In case \(A\) is a (unital complex) normed algebra, one can talk about topological divisors of zero of an algebra \(A\). The set \(tld(\theta_A)\) of topological left divisors of zero consists of all such elements \(a\in A\) for which there exists a subset \(B\subseteq A\) such that \(\theta_A\) is not in the closure of \(B\) in the topology, induced on \(A\) by the norm, but \(\theta_A\) belongs to the closure of the set \(aB\) in the same topology.\par For a normed algebra \(A\) and \(a\in A\), \textit{the approximated spectrum of \(a\)} is the set\par \(\sigma_a(A)=\{\lambda\in{\mathbb C}: a-\lambda 1_A\in tld(\theta_A)\}\).\par A normed ring \((R, \parallel\cdot\parallel)\) is \textit{almost absolutely normed} if for each \(u\in {\mathcal U}(R)\) there exists \(v\in{\mathcal U}(R)\) such that \(\parallel v\parallel\leqslant\parallel u\parallel\) and \(\parallel v^{-1}\parallel\leqslant\parallel u\parallel^{-1}\).\par One of the results of the paper states that if \(R\) is a complete almost absolutely normed ring, then the boundary of the set \({\mathcal U}(R)\) of invertible elements of \(R\) is included in the intersection of the set \(tld(\theta_R)\) of topological left zero divisors of \(R\) and the set \(trd(\theta_R)\) of topological right zero divisors of \(R\).\par Some other properties of the set of invertible elements for some specific classes of topological rings are also proved.