A Loomis-Sikorski theorem and functional calculus for a generalized Hermitian algebra

A generalized Hermitian (GH-) algebra is a generalization of the partially ordered Jordan algebra of all Hermitian operators on a Hilbert space. We introduce the notion of a gh-tribe, which is a commutative GH-algebra of functions on a nonempty set X with pointwise partial order and operations, and we prove that every commutative GH-algebra is the image of a gh-tribe under a surjective GH-morphism. Using this result, we prove that each element a of a GH-algebra A corresponds to a real observable ξa on the σ-orthomodular lattice of projections in A and that ξa determines the spectral resolution of a. Also, if f is a continuous function defined on the spectrum of a, we formulate a definition of f (a), thus obtaining a continuous functional calculus for A.