Adelic versions of the Weierstrass approximation theorem

Abstract

Let $\underline{E}=\prod_{p\in\mathbb{P}}E_p$ be a compact subset of $\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}=\prod_{p\in\mathbb{P}}\mathbb{Z}_p$ and denote by $\mathcal C(\underline{E},\widehat{\mathbb{Z}})$ the ring of continuous functions from $\underline{E}$ into $\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}$. We obtain two kinds of adelic versions of the Weierstrass approximation theorem. Firstly, we prove that the ring ${\rm Int}_{\mathbb{Q}}(\underline{E},\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}):=\{f(x)\in\mathbb{Q}[x]\mid \forall p\in\mathbb{P},\;\;f(E_p)\subseteq \mathbb{Z}_p\}$ is dense in the direct product $\prod_{p\in\mathbb{P}}\mathcal C(E_p,\mathbb{Z}_p)\,$ for the uniform convergence topology. Secondly, under the hypothesis that, for each $n\geq 0$, $\#(E_p\pmod{p})>n$ for all but finitely many $p$, we prove the existence of regular bases of the $\mathbb{Z}$-module ${\rm Int}_{\mathbb{Q}}(\underline{E},\widehat{\mathbb{Z}})$, and show that, for such a basis $\{f_n\}_{n\geq 0}$, every function $\underline{\varphi}$ in $\prod_{p\in\mathbb{P}}\mathcal{C}(E_p,\mathbb{Z}_p)$ may be uniquely written as a series $\sum_{n\geq 0}\underline{c}_n f_n$ where $\underline{c}_n\in\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}$ and $\lim_{n\to \infty}\underline{c}_n\to 0$.Comment: minor corrections the statement of Theorem 3.5, which covers the case of a general compact subset of the profinite completion of Z. to appear in Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra, comments are welcome