In mathematics, particularly linear algebra and functional analysis, a spectral theorem is a result about when a linear operator or matrix can be diagonalized. This is extremely useful because computations involving a diagonalizable matrix can often be reduced to much simpler computations involving the corresponding diagonal matrix. The concept of diagonalization is relatively straightforward for operators on finite-dimensional vector spaces but requires some modification for operators on infinite-dimensional spaces. In general, the spectral theorem identifies a class of linear operators that can be modeled by multiplication operators, which are as simple as one can hope to find. In more abstract language, the spectral theorem is a statement about commutative C*-algebras. See also spectral theory for a historical perspective.
In mathematics, especially functional analysis, a normal operator on a complex Hilbert space H is a continuous linear operator N : H → H that commutes with its hermitian adjoint N*, that is: NN* = N*N.
In mathematics, specifically functional analysis, a trace-class operator is a linear operator for which a trace may be defined, such that the trace is a finite number independent of the choice of basis used to compute the trace. This trace of trace-class operators generalizes the trace of matrices studied in linear algebra. All trace-class operators are compact operators.
In functional analysis, a unitary operator is a surjective bounded operator on a Hilbert space that preserves the inner product. Unitary operators are usually taken as operating on a Hilbert space, but the same notion serves to define the concept of isomorphism between Hilbert spaces.
In mathematics, a von Neumann algebra or W*-algebra is a *-algebra of bounded operators on a Hilbert space that is closed in the weak operator topology and contains the identity operator. It is a special type of C*-algebra.
Paul Richard Halmos was a Hungarian-born American mathematician and statistician who made fundamental advances in the areas of mathematical logic, probability theory, statistics, operator theory, ergodic theory, and functional analysis. He was also recognized as a great mathematical expositor. He has been described as one of The Martians.
In mathematics, specifically functional analysis, a Banach space is said to have the approximation property (AP), if every compact operator is a limit of finite-rank operators. The converse is always true.
In the field of mathematics known as functional analysis, the invariant subspace problem is a partially unresolved problem asking whether every bounded operator on a complex Banach space sends some non-trivial closed subspace to itself. Many variants of the problem have been solved, by restricting the class of bounded operators considered or by specifying a particular class of Banach spaces. The problem is still open for separable Hilbert spaces.
In mathematics, operator theory is the study of linear operators on function spaces, beginning with differential operators and integral operators. The operators may be presented abstractly by their characteristics, such as bounded linear operators or closed operators, and consideration may be given to nonlinear operators. The study, which depends heavily on the topology of function spaces, is a branch of functional analysis.
In mathematics, a Hilbert–Schmidt operator, named after David Hilbert and Erhard Schmidt, is a bounded operator that acts on a Hilbert space and has finite Hilbert–Schmidt norm
In operator theory, quasinormal operators is a class of bounded operators defined by weakening the requirements of a normal operator.
In mathematics, a commutation theorem for traces explicitly identifies the commutant of a specific von Neumann algebra acting on a Hilbert space in the presence of a trace.
In mathematics, Hilbert spaces allow the methods of linear algebra and calculus to be generalized from (finite-dimensional) Euclidean vector spaces to spaces that may be infinite-dimensional. Hilbert spaces arise naturally and frequently in mathematics and physics, typically as function spaces. Formally, a Hilbert space is a vector space equipped with an inner product that induces a distance function for which the space is a complete metric space.
In mathematics, especially operator theory, a hyponormal operator is a generalization of a normal operator. In general, a bounded linear operator T on a complex Hilbert space H is said to be p-hyponormal if:
An infinite-dimensional vector function is a function whose values lie in an infinite-dimensional topological vector space, such as a Hilbert space or a Banach space.
In mathematics, the Weyl–von Neumann theorem is a result in operator theory due to Hermann Weyl and John von Neumann. It states that, after the addition of a compact operator or Hilbert–Schmidt operator of arbitrarily small norm, a bounded self-adjoint operator or unitary operator on a Hilbert space is conjugate by a unitary operator to a diagonal operator. The results are subsumed in later generalizations for bounded normal operators due to David Berg and Dan-Virgil Voiculescu. The theorem and its generalizations were one of the starting points of operator K-homology, developed first by Lawrence G. Brown, Ronald Douglas and Peter Fillmore and, in greater generality, by Gennadi Kasparov.
In mathematics, a symmetrizable compact operator is a compact operator on a Hilbert space that can be composed with a positive operator with trivial kernel to produce a self-adjoint operator. Such operators arose naturally in the work on integral operators of Hilbert, Korn, Lichtenstein and Marty required to solve elliptic boundary value problems on bounded domains in Euclidean space. Between the late 1940s and early 1960s the techniques, previously developed as part of classical potential theory, were abstracted within operator theory by various mathematicians, including M. G. Krein, William T. Reid, Peter Lax and Jean Dieudonné. Fredholm theory already implies that any element of the spectrum is an eigenvalue. The main results assert that the spectral theory of these operators is similar to that of compact self-adjoint operators: any spectral value is real; they form a sequence tending to zero; any generalized eigenvector is an eigenvector; and the eigenvectors span a dense subspace of the Hilbert space.
In mathematics, Jordan operator algebras are real or complex Jordan algebras with the compatible structure of a Banach space. When the coefficients are real numbers, the algebras are called Jordan Banach algebras. The theory has been extensively developed only for the subclass of JB algebras. The axioms for these algebras were devised by Alfsen, Schultz & Størmer (1978). Those that can be realised concretely as subalgebras of self-adjoint operators on a real or complex Hilbert space with the operator Jordan product and the operator norm are called JC algebras. The axioms for complex Jordan operator algebras, first suggested by Irving Kaplansky in 1976, require an involution and are called JB* algebras or Jordan C* algebras. By analogy with the abstract characterisation of von Neumann algebras as C* algebras for which the underlying Banach space is the dual of another, there is a corresponding definition of JBW algebras. Those that can be realised using ultraweakly closed Jordan algebras of self-adjoint operators with the operator Jordan product are called JW algebras. The JBW algebras with trivial center, so-called JBW factors, are classified in terms of von Neumann factors: apart from the exceptional 27 dimensional Albert algebra and the spin factors, all other JBW factors are isomorphic either to the self-adjoint part of a von Neumann factor or to its fixed point algebra under a period two *-anti-automorphism. Jordan operator algebras have been applied in quantum mechanics and in complex geometry, where Koecher's description of bounded symmetric domains using Jordan algebras has been extended to infinite dimensions.
In mathematics, a singular trace is a trace on a space of linear operators of a separable Hilbert space that vanishes on operators of finite rank. Singular traces are a feature of infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces such as the space of square-summable sequences and spaces of square-integrable functions. Linear operators on a finite-dimensional Hilbert space have only the zero functional as a singular trace since all operators have finite rank. For example, matrix algebras have no non-trivial singular traces and the matrix trace is the unique trace up to scaling.
In mathematics, the commutator subspace of a two-sided ideal of bounded linear operators on a separable Hilbert space is the linear subspace spanned by commutators of operators in the ideal with bounded operators. Modern characterisation of the commutator subspace is through the Calkin correspondence and it involves the invariance of the Calkin sequence space of an operator ideal to taking Cesàro means. This explicit spectral characterisation reduces problems and questions about commutators and traces on two-sided ideals to problems and conditions on sequence spaces.
