A uniform algebra on is natural if every character of an algebra is evaluation at a point of . The evaluation embedding then identifies its character space homeomorphically with . A natural uniform algebra is characterized by the finite-generator criterion for a natural uniform algebra. In particular, is natural; the disk algebra is natural when its underlying space is the closed disk.
A uniform algebra is natural exactly when functions with no common zero generate the unit ideal. If a generated ideal is proper, it is contained in a maximal ideal. That maximal ideal is closed: the closure of a proper ideal stays proper, since an element within distance less than one of the identity is invertible by the Neumann series. The Gelfand-Mazur theorem identifies the maximal-ideal quotient with the complex numbers, yielding a character of an algebra. Naturality would make that character a common-zero evaluation, a contradiction. Conversely, the asserted unit-ideal property makes the zero sets of every finite collection in a character's kernel intersect. Compactness gives a point common to all these zero sets; applying this to proves . For , one can directly take .
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