Let A be a unital Banach function algebra with character space ${\Phi }_A$. For $x\in {\Phi }_A$, let $M_x$ and $J_x$ be the ideals of functions vanishing at x and in a neighbourhood of x, respectively. It is shown that the hull of $J_x$ is connected, and that if x does not belong to the Shilov boundary of A then the set $y\in {\Phi }_A:M_x\supseteq J_y$ has an infinite connected subset. Various related results are given.

An ideal in a commutative topological algebra with separately continuous multiplication is non-removable if and only if it consists locally of joint topological divisors of zero. Also, any family of non-removable ideals can be removed simultanously.

Let A and B be uniform algebras. Suppose that α ≠ 0 and A 1 ⊂ A. Let ρ, τ: A 1 → A and S, T: A 1 → B be mappings. Suppose that ρ(A 1), τ(A 1) and S(A 1), T(A 1) are closed under multiplications and contain expA and expB, respectively. If ‖S(f)T(g) − α‖∞ = ‖ρ(f)τ(g) − α‖∞ for all f, g ∈ A 1, S(e 1)−1 ∈ S(A 1) and S(e 1) ∈ T(A 1) for some e 1 ∈ A 1 with ρ(e 1) = 1, then there exists a real-algebra isomorphism $$\tilde{S}$$ : A → B such that $$\tilde{S}$$ (ρ(f)) = S(e 1)−1 S(f) for every f ∈ A 1. We also give some applications...

In recent years much work has been done analyzing maps, not assumed to be linear, between uniform algebras that preserve the norm, spectrum, or subsets of the spectra of algebra elements, and it is shown that such maps must be linear and/or multiplicative. Letting A and B be uniform algebras on compact Hausdorff spaces X and Y, respectively, it is shown here that if λ ∈ ℂ / 0 and T: A → B is a surjective map, not assumed to be linear, satisfying $$∥T\left(f\right)T\left(g\right)+\lambda ∥=∥fg+\lambda ∥\forall f,g\in A,$$ then T is an ℝ-linear isometry and there exist an...

It is a long standing open problem whether there is any infinite-dimensional commutative Banach algebra without nontrivial closed ideals. This is in some sense the Banach algebraists' counterpart to the invariant subspace problem for Banach spaces. We do not here solve this famous problem, but solve a related problem, that of finding (necessarily commutative) infinite-dimensional normed algebras which do not even have nontrivial closed subalgebras. Our examples are incomplete normed algebras rather...