Extreme contractive operators on Stone \(f\)-algebras (Q2510076)

Let \(A\) be an Archimedean semiprime \(f\)-algebra with unit \(I_A\). Than \(A\) is called a Stone \(f\)-algebra if \(I_A\wedge f \in A\) for all \(f\in A\). Let \(A, B\) be two Stone \(f\)-algebras. An operator \(T:A\rightarrow B\) is called contractive if \(f\in A\) and \(0\leq f\leq I_A\) imply \(0\leq Tf\leq I_B\). The set \({K(A, B)}\) of all positive contractive operators from \(A\) into \(B\) is a convex set. In one of the major results of the paper, an operator \(T\) in \({K(A, B)}\) is shown to be extreme if and only if \(T\) is an algebra homomorphism. It is also shown that an operator \(T\) in \({K(A, B)}\) is extreme if and only if it satisfies \(T(I_A \wedge f) = I_B \wedge Tf\) for all \(f\in A\).