On the Generality of Assuming that a Family of Continuous Functions Separates Points

Abstract

For an algebra ${\mathcal{A}}$ of complex-valued, continuous functions on a compact Hausdorff space (X, τ), it is standard practice to assume that ${\mathcal{A}}$ separates points in the sense that for each distinct pair ${x, y \in X}$ , there exists an ${f \in \mathcal{A}}$ such that ${f(x) \neq f(y)}$ . If ${\mathcal{A}}$ does not separate points, it is known that there exists an algebra ${\widehat{\mathcal{A}}}$ on a compact Hausdorff space ${(\widehat{X}, \widehat{\tau})}$ that does separate points such that the map ${\mathcal{A} \mapsto \widehat{\mathcal{A}}}$ is a uniform norm isometric algebra isomorphism. So it is, to a degree, without loss of generality that we assume ${\mathcal{A}}$ separates points. The construction of ${{\widehat{\mathcal{A}}}}$ and ${(\widehat{X}, \widehat{\tau})}$ does not require that ${\mathcal{A}}$ has any algebraic structure nor that ${(X, \tau)}$ has any properties, other than being a topological space. In this work we develop a framework for determining the degree to which separation of points may be assumed without loss of generality for any family ${\mathcal{A}}$ of bounded, complex-valued, continuous functions on any topological space ${(X, \tau)}$ . We also demonstrate that further structures may be preserved by the mapping ${\mathcal{A} \mapsto \widehat{\mathcal{A}}}$ , such as boundaries of weak peak points, the Lipschitz constant when the functions are Lipschitz on a compact metric space, and the involutive structure of real function algebras on compact Hausdorff spaces.