Stone duality and Gleason covers through de Vries duality

Abstract

We introduce zero-dimensional de Vries algebras and show that the category of zero-dimensional de Vries algebras is dually equivalent to the category of Stone spaces. This shows that Stone duality can be obtained as a particular case of de Vries duality. We also introduce extremally disconnected de Vries algebras and show that the category of extremally disconnected de Vries algebras is dually equivalent to the category of extremally disconnected compact Hausdorff spaces. As a result, we give a simple construction of the Gleason cover of a compact Hausdorff space by means of de Vries duality. We also discuss the insight that Stone duality provides in better understanding of de Vries duality.