Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2009
We recall that a JC-algebra (Størmer (3)) is a norm closed Jordan algebra of self-adjoint operators on a Hilbert space. Recently, Alfsen, Shultz, and Størmer (1) have introduced a class of abstract normed Jordan algebras called JB-algebras, and have proved that every special JB-algebra is isometrically isomorphic to a JC-algebra. We show that this result brings to a satisfactory conclusion the discussion in (2) of certain wedges W in Banach algebras and their related Jordan algebras W–W, and leads to two characterisations of the bicontinuously isomorphic images of JC-algebras.