The Stone-Weierstrass theorem has an analog for the algebras of smooth functions, called > **Naсhbin's theorem**: An involutive subalgebra $A$ in the algebra ${\mathcal C}^\infty(M)$ of smooth functions on a smooth manifold $M$ is dense in ${\mathcal C}^\infty(M)$ if and only if $A$ separates the points and the tangent vectors of $M$. See details in: "L.Nachbin. Sur les algèbres denses de fonctions diffèrentiables sur une variètè, C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris 228 (1949) 1549-1551", or in [J.G.Llavona's monograph][3], or [here][4]. ---------- **Remark.** The easiest way to describe the topology on ${\mathcal C}^\infty(M)$ is, I think, the following. 1. For each function $f\in {\mathcal C}^\infty(M)$ let us define its *support* as the set of points in $M$ where $f$ has non-zero [germs][1]: $$ \text{supp}f=\{x\in M:\ f\not\equiv 0\ (\mod x)\} $$ 2. Let us define *differential operators* (see e.g. [S.Helgason's book][2]) on $M$ as linear mappings $D:{\mathcal C}^\infty(M)\to {\mathcal C}^\infty(M)$ which do not extend the support of functions: $$ \text{supp}Df\subseteq \text{supp}f,\quad f\in{\mathcal C}^\infty(M). $$ 3. Then we say that a sequence of functions $f_n$ converges to a function $f$ in ${\mathcal C}^\infty(M)$ $$ f_n\overset{{\mathcal C}^\infty(M)}{\underset{n\to\infty}{\longrightarrow}}f $$ if and only if for each differential operator $D:{\mathcal C}^\infty(M)\to {\mathcal C}^\infty(M)$ the sequence of functions $Df_n$ converges to $Df$ in the space ${\mathcal C}(M)$ of continuous functions with the usual *topology of uniform convergence on compact sets* in $M$: $$ Df_n\overset{{\mathcal C}(M)}{\underset{n\to\infty}{\longrightarrow}}Df $$ Of course, this is equivalent to the convergence in ${\mathcal C}^\infty(U)$ for each smooth local chart $\varphi:U\to V$, $U\subseteq\mathbb{R}^m$, $V\subseteq M$. ---------- This is strange, I can't find an analog for the algebras of holomorphic functions (on complex manifolds). Did anybody think about this? > **Question**: let $A$ be a subalgebra in the algebra ${\mathcal O}(M)$ of holomorphic functions on a complex manifold $M$ (as a first approximation, we can think that $M$ is just an open subset in ${\mathbb C}^n$). Which conditions should $A$ satisfy for being dense in ${\mathcal O}(M)$? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ_(mathematics) [2]: http://www.amazon.com/Geometric-Invariant-Differential-Operators-Spherical/dp/0821826735 [3]: https://books.google.ru/books/about/Approximation_of_Continuously_Differenti.html?id=C7auJPRK5nAC&redir_esc=y [4]: http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.2424