On the universal completions of pointfree function spaces

Abstract

This paper approaches the construction of the universal completion of the Riesz space $\mathrm{C}(L)$ of continuous real functions on a completely regular frame $L$ in two different ways. Firstly as the space of continuous real functions on the Booleanization of $L$. Secondly as the space of nearly finite Hausdorff continuous functions on $L$. The former has no counterpart in the classical theory, as the Booleanization of a spatial frame is not spatial in general, and it offers a lucid way of representing the universal completion as a space of continuous real functions. As a corollary we obtain that $\mathrm{C}(L)$ and $\mathrm{C}(M)$ have isomorphic universal completions if and only if the Booleanization of $L$ and $M$ are isomorphic and we characterize frames $L$ such that $\mathrm{C}(L)$ is universally complete as almost Boolean frames. The application of this last result to the classical case $\mathrm{C}(X)$ of the space of continuous real functions on a topological space $X$ characterizes those spaces $X$ for which $\mathrm{C}(X)$ is universally complete. Finally, we present a pointfree version of the Maeda-Ogasawara-Vulikh representation theorem and use it to represent the universal completion of an Archimedean Riesz space with weak unit as a space of continuous real functions on a Boolean frame.