Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences

Let $X$ be a compact Hausdorff space and $C(X)$ be the space of continuous real-valued functions on $X$ endowed with the topology of uniform convergence. Assume we are given a finite number of closed subalgebras $A_1, \dots A_k$ of $C(X)$. Our talk is devoted to the following problem. What conditions imposed on $A_1, \dots, A_k$ are necessary and/or sufficient for the representation $C(X) = A_1 +\dots + A_k$? For the case $k = 1$, the history of this problem goes back to 1937 and 1948 papers by M. Stone. A version of the corresponding famous result, known as the Stone-Weierstrass theorem, states that a closed subalgebra $A \subset C(X)$, which contains a nonzero constant function, coincides with the whole space $C(X)$ if and only if $A$ separates points of $X$.