By a characterization of semiprime SA-rings by Birkenmeier, Ghirati and
Taherifar in \cite[Theorem 4.4]{B}, and by the topological characterization of
C(X) as a Baer-ring by Stone and Nakano in \cite[Theorem 3.25]{KM}, it is
easy to see that C(X) is an SA-ring (resp., IN-ring) \ifif X is an
extremally disconnected space. This result motivates the following questions:
Question (1): What is X if for any two ideals I and J of C(X) which
are generated by two subsets of idempotents, Ann(I)+Ann(J)=Ann(I∩J)?
Question (2): When does for any ideal I of C(X) exists a subset S of
idempotents such that Ann(I)=Ann(S)? Along the line of answering these
questions we introduce two classes of topological spaces. We call X an
EF (resp., EZ)-space if disjoint unions of
clopen sets are completely separated (resp., every regular closed subset is the
closure of a union of clopen subsets). Topological properties of EF
(resp., EZ)-spaces are investigated. As a consequence, a
completely regular Hausdorff space X is an Fα-space in the sense of
Comfort and Negrepontis for each infinite cardinal α \ifif X is an
EF and EZ-space. Among other things, for a reduced ring R (resp.,
J(R)=0) we show that Spec(R) (resp., Max(R)) is an EZ-space \ifif for
every ideal I of R there exists a subset S of idempotents of R such
that Ann(I)=Ann(S).Comment: 17 pages. Topology and Its Applications, Available online 28 January
201