Topology of the Maximal Ideal Space of H^(infty)

We study the structure of the maximal ideal space $M(H^{\infty})$ of the algebra $H^{\infty}=H^{\infty}(\Di)$ of bounded analytic functions defined on the open unit disk $\Di\subset\Co$. Based on the fact that $dim\ M(H^{\infty})=2$ we prove for $H^{\infty}$ the matrix-valued corona theorem. Our results heavily rely on the topological construction describing maximal ideal spaces of certain algebras of continuous functions defined on the covering spaces of compact manifolds.