Projective Freeness and Stable Rank of Algebras of Complex-valued BV Functions

The paper investigates the algebraic properties of Banach algebras of complex-valued functions of bounded variation on a finite interval. It is proved that such algebras have Bass stable rank one and are projective free if they do not contain nontrivial idempotents. These properties are derived from a new result on the vanishing of the second Čech cohomology group of the polynomially convex hull of a continuum of a finite linear measure.