Notions of boundaries for function spaces (Q4529689)

The article under review, written in a crisp style that rewards the reader, considers two generalizations of the Shilov boundary of a function algebra. While different in general, the two are shown to be equivalent in the context of uniform algebras and closed subsets of the spectrum. This leads to an alternative proof of a result of Tonev characterizing this generalized boundary. More specifically, suppose \(M\) is a compact Hausdorff space, \(Y\) a complex Banach space, and \({\mathcal F}\) a family of continuous functions from \(M\) to \(Y\). For a set \(S\subseteq {\mathcal F}\), let \[ V(S)=\{x\in M|\forall f\in S, f(x)=0\}. \] Let \(q\) be a nonnegative integer. A set \(E\subseteq M\) is called a \`\` \(q\)th order boundary'' for \({\mathcal F}\) if, for every set \(S \subseteq {\mathcal F}\) with cardinality \(\sharp S\leq q\) and every \(f\) in \({\mathcal F}\), there exists \(x\) in \(E\cap V(S)\) such that \(||f(x) ||= \max_{V(S)}{||f||}\). Alternatively, \(E\) is called a \`\` \(q\)-tuple boundary'' for \({\mathcal F}\) if, for every function \(F=(f_1,\;\ldots ,\;f_q):M\to Y^q\) with each \(f_i\) in \({\mathcal F}\), the topological boundary \(\partial F(M)\) of \(F(M)\) in \(Y^q\) is contained in \(F(E)\); that is, \(\partial F(M)\subseteq F(E)\). Proposition 2 asserts that every \((q+1)\)-tuple boundary for \({\mathcal F}\) is a \(q\)th order boundary while Example 1 shows that the reverse is not true in general. However (Theorem 1), if \({\mathcal A}\) is a uniform algebra with spectrum \(M\), then a closed subset \(K\subseteq M\) is a \(q\)th order boundary for \({\mathcal A}\) if, and only if, \(K\) is a \((q+1)\)-tuple boundary for \({\mathcal A}\). From this follows Tonev's result that the \(q\)th order generalized Shilov boundary of \({\mathcal A}\) is the minimal closed \((q+1)\)-tuple boundary for \({\mathcal A}\). Examples 2 and 3 illustrate the crucial role in Theorem 1 of the hypothesis that the set \(K\) is closed. par The paper concludes by demonstrating that, if \(M\) is a compact, convex subset of a real linear space and \({\mathcal L}\) is the set of real-valued continuous linear functions on \(M\), then a subset \(E\subseteq M\) is a \(q\)th order boundary for \({\mathcal L}\) if and only if \(E\) is a \((q+1)\)-tuple boundary for \({\mathcal L}\).