Gleason--Kahane--Żelazko theorem for spectrally bounded algebra (Q2368358)

Summary: We prove by elementary methods the following generalization of a theorem due to Gleason, Kahane, and Żelazko. Let \(A\) be a real algebra with unit 1 such that the spectrum of every element in \(A\) is bounded and let \(\phi : A \rightarrow \mathbb{C}\) be a linear map such that \(\phi(1) = 1\) and \((\phi(a))^2 + (\phi(b))^2 \neq 0\) for all \(a\), \(b\) in \(A\) satisfying \(ab = ba\) and \(a^2 + b^2\) is invertible. Then \(\phi(ab) = \phi(a) \phi(b)\) for all \(a\), \(b\) in \(A\). Similar results are proved for real and complex algebras using Ransford's concept of generalized spectrum. With these ideas, a sufficient condition for a linear transformation to be multiplicative is established in terms of generalized spectrum.