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I added the description of topology on ${\mathcal C}^\infty(M)$
Sergei Akbarov
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Stone-Weierstrass theorem for holomorphic functions?

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, or here.


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: $$ \text{supp}f=\{x\in M:\ f\not\equiv 0\ (\mod x)\} $$

  2. Let us define differential operators (see e.g. S.Helgason's book) 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 ${\mathcal O}(M)$?

Sergei Akbarov
  • 7.4k
  • 2
  • 29
  • 55