Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2026/iii/paper-106/2/f/iv/solution
Assume for contradiction that any algebra norm exists. Part iii makes compact, so choose an interval disjoint from and a nonzero supported in that interval. Choose with on and on the support of . Then are nonzero and .
In the completion , every character is evaluation at a point of , so . Thus has spectral radius zero. The equality givesfor every . The spectral radius formula supplies an with , and submultiplicativity then givesan impossibility because . Hence admits no algebra norm at all.
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