Additively spectral-radius preserving surjections between unital semisimple commutative Banach algebras (Q607417)

Real-linear surjective isometries between uniform algebras were studied and described by \textit{A.\,Ellis} [Bull.\ Lond.\ Math.\ Soc., 22, 381--385 (1990; Zbl 0792.47034)]. The present authors extend this result to unital semisimple commutative Banach algebras. Namely, let \(\mathcal A\) and \(\mathcal B\) be unital semisimple commutative Banach algebras with maximal ideal spaces \(M_{\mathcal A}\) and \(M_{\mathcal B}\) respectively. For any surjective uniform isometry \(T: \mathcal A\to\mathcal B\) (i.e., \(r(T(a)+T(b))=r(a+b)\), \(a,b\in\mathcal A\)), there is a homeomorphism \(\varphi: M_{\mathcal B}\to M_{\mathcal A}\) and a clopen set \(K\subset M_{\mathcal B}\) such that \(\widehat{T(a)}(y)=\widehat{T(e)}(y)\,\widehat a(\varphi(y))\) if \(y\in K\), and \(\widehat{T(a)}(y)=\widehat{T(e)}(y)\,\overline{\widehat a(\varphi(y))}\) if \(y\in M_{\mathcal B}\setminus K\). The proof is based on the classical Mazur-Ulam theorem and on the result by Ellis mentioned above, and relies essentially on the existence of unit elements in the algebras. The authors' result has a nice consequence in the study of algebra isomorphisms between unital semisimple commutative Banach algebras. For instance, if, in addition to the hypotheses, \(\widehat{T(e)}=1\) and \(\widehat{T(ie)}=i\), then \(T\) is an algebra isomorphism between \(\mathcal A\) and \(\mathcal B\).