A revisit of the Arens-Royden and Shilov idempotent theorems for real Banach algebras (Q2287993)

Let \(\mathcal{R}\) be a unital commutative real Banach algebra. There is a canonical way to view \(\mathcal{R}\) as a real part of a unital commutative complex Banach algebra. In this paper, the authors use this connection to give proofs of the real versions of two well-known theorems: \begin{itemize} \item the Arens-Royden theorem, which relates elements of the quotient group $\mathcal{R}^{-1}/\exp\mathcal{R}$, where $\mathcal{R}^{-1}$ is the group of invertible elements of $\mathcal{R}$, with elements of the similar group $\mathcal{C}(X,\tau)^{-1}/\exp(\mathcal{C}(X,\tau))$ where $X$ is the spectrum of $\mathcal{R}$ (i.e., the space of nonzero real-algebra homomorphisms into $\mathbb{C}$ equipped with the weak$^*$ topology), which is a compact Hausdorff space, $\tau:X\to X$ is the involutive homeomorphism taking an element $\chi$ of $X$ into its pointwise complex conjugate $\overline{\chi}$, and $\mathcal{C}(X,\tau)$ is the algebra of complex-valued continuous functions on $X$ that are $\tau$-symmetric (i.e., $f\circ\tau=\overline{f}$); \item the Shilov idempotent theorem, which produces idempotents of \(\mathcal{R}\) from idempotents of $\mathcal{C}(X,\tau)$. \end{itemize} As an application, they also extend a result of \textit{G.~Corach} and \textit{F.~D. Suárez} [Topology Appl. 21, 1--8 (1985; Zbl 0606.46033)] on solutions of Bézout equations from the complex case to the real case.