\(\ell\)-ring aspects of compactification in pointfree topology (Q2250135)

This paper describes the compactifications in the category \textbf{CRFrm} of completely regular frames, meaning, for any such frame \(L\), the dense onto frame homomorphisms \(h: M \to L\) where \(M\) is a compact completely regular frame. The basic tool is the well-known adjoint situation between \textbf{CRFrm} and the category of Archimedean \(f\)-rings with unit and the description is given in terms of particular subrings of the lattice-ordered ring of all continuous real-valued functions on \(L\). It is shown that the classical description of all compactifications \(Y \supseteq X\) of a Tychonoff space \(X\) as the maximal ideal space of certain subrings of \(C(X)\) follows in a straightforward manner from this description. Further, compactifications in the category of zero-dimensional frames provide an exact parallel to the situation in the completely regular setting, with integer-valued functions playing the rôle of real-valued functions.