The classical Gelfand–Naimark theorems provide important insight into the structure of general and of commutative -algebras. It is shown that these can be generalized to certain ordered
-algebras. More precisely, for
-bounded closed ordered
-algebras, a faithful representation as operators is constructed. Similarly, for commutative such algebras, a faithful representation as complex-valued functions is constructed if an additional necessary regularity condition is fulfilled. These results generalize the Gelfand–Naimark representation theorems to classes of
-algebras larger than
-algebras, and which especially contain
-algebras of unbounded operators. The key to these representation theorems is a new result for Archimedean ordered vector spaces V: If V is
-bounded, then the order of V is induced by the extremal positive linear functionals on V.