On closed subalgebras of CB(X)

Abstract

For a completely regular space $X$ and a non-vanishing self-adjoint closed subalgebra $H$ of $C_B(X)$ which separates points from closed sets in $X$ we construct the Gelfand spectrum $\mathfrak{sp}(H)$ of $H$ as an open subspace of the compactification of $X$ generated by $H$. The simple construction of $\mathfrak{sp}(H)$ enables easier examination of its properties. We illustrate this by an example showing that the space $\mathfrak{sp}(H)$ is separable metrizable if and only if $H$ is countably generated.

7 pages