Notes on pointfree disconnectivity with a ring-theoretic slant (Q2268746)

In this nice paper, the author gives characterizations of extremally disconnected frames, basically disconnected frames and \(F\)-frames \(L\) in terms of the ring-theoretic properties of the ring \({\mathcal R}L\) of continuous real-valued functions on \(L\), among which we have: \(L\) is extremally disconnected if and only if \({\mathcal R}L\) is a Baer ring (meaning that every annihilator ideal is principal generated by an idempotent); \(L\) is basically disconnected if and only if \({\mathcal R}L\) is a PP-ring (meaning that the annihilator of each element is principal generated by an idempotent); \(L\) is an \(F\)-frame if and only if \({\mathcal R}L\) is a PF-ring (meaning that the annihilator of each element is a pure ideal). These characterizations then yield new and purely ring-theoretic proofs that a frame is extremally disconnected, basically disconnected or an \(F\)-frame if and only if the same holds for its Stone-Čech compactification. The proofs rely heavily on the properties of the right adjoint of the Stone-Čech compactification.