Complex function algebras and removable spaces (Q2499783)

A compact Hausdorff space \(X\) has the Complex Stone-Weierstrass Property (CSWP) iff \(X\) satisfies the complex version of the Stone-Weierstrass Theorem. In 1956 W. Rudin proved that the CSWP is true for all compact scattered spaces. This result posed the following question: whether having the CSWP was equivalent to being scattered? Rudin answered yes in the case of compact metric spaces. The Cantor set and BN are the very well known examples of non-scattered spaces which failed to have the CSWP. On the other hand there are non-scattered spaces with the CSWP. In the present paper the authors, describing some basic techniques, extend the above-mentioned results to a much wider class of spaces. More precisely, their interesting results have as a special case the following: if \(X\) is the product of a compact ordered space and a compact scattered space, then \(X\) has the CSWP if and only if \(X\) does not contain a copy of the Cantor set.