Normal element of a C-star algebra

An element $x$ of a C-star algebra is normal when $x^{\ast }x=x{x}^{\ast }$.

Since a normal C-star element commutes with its adjoint, words in those two generators can be rearranged into the displayed finite sum. Including the constant term generates the unital star algebra; omitting it generates the nonunital star algebra. Under continuous functional calculus, such a sum is the ordinary function ${\sum }_{j,k}{c}_{jk}{z}^j{\overline{z}}^k$ on the spectrum. The Stone-Weierstrass theorem makes these functions uniformly dense.

The unital continuous functional calculus has image $C^{\ast }(1,x)$, the norm closure of star polynomials including constants. The smallest closed star subalgebra $C^{\ast }(x)$ need not contain the ambient identity: for $x=0$ it is zero. In a nonunital algebra, apply the unital calculus in the C-star unitization and retain functions vanishing at zero to recover $C^{\ast }(x)$ inside the original algebra.

For normal $x$, the closed unital C-star subalgebra generated by $x,x^{\ast }$ is commutative. When the ambient spectrum is real, its complement is connected. Membership of the resolvent in this subalgebra is both open and closed on that complement, and holds at large modulus by the Neumann series. Thus the subalgebra spectrum is the same real set. Its isometric Gelfand transform takes $x$ to a real-valued function and $x^{\ast }$ to its conjugate, proving equality. Normality is necessary: the nonzero matrix $\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 0& 0\end{array}\right)$ has spectrum $\{0\}$ but is not self-adjoint.

For a Normal element of a C-star algebra, the C-star identity gives $\Vert a^2\Vert =\Vert a{\Vert }^2$, and iteration gives $\Vert a^{2^n}\Vert =\Vert a{\Vert }^{2^n}$. The spectral radius formula then gives $r(a)=\Vert a\Vert$. This proves the isometry of the Gelfand transform for a commutative C-star algebra directly from its defining norm identity.