Summer of Math Exposition

A Sketch of a Nonexistent Pyramid

In this exposition, we present a theorem and a sketch of its proof. This theorem extends the renowned Gelfand-Mazur Lemma from the theory of normed algebras. Familiarity with the context—the theory of unitary Banach C-algebras—is assumed. The original lemma states: "If $A$ is a unitary Banach C-algebra, for any element $a \in A$, there exists a complex number $\lambda$ such that $a - \lambda$ is non-invertible in $A$." The generalization is as follows: "If $A$ is an R-algebra and $E$ is an R-vector subspace of $A$ where all elements commute, and any nonzero element of $E$ is invertible in the completion $\hat{A}$ of $A$, then $E$ has at most two independent vectors." Here, $R$ denotes the real number field.