EN
Let A be a commutative Banach algebra and let $Σ_{A}$ be its structure space. The norm spectrum σ(f) of the functional f ∈ A* is defined by $σ(f) = \overline{f·a: a ∈ A} ∩ Σ_{A}$, where f·a is the functional on A defined by ⟨f·a,b⟩ = ⟨f,ab⟩, b ∈ A. We investigate basic properties of the norm spectrum in certain classes of commutative Banach algebras and present some applications.