Introduction To Operator Theory I

Since the beginning of the thirties a considerable number of books on func tional analysis has been published. Among the first ones were those by M. H. Stone on Hilbert spaces and by S. Banach on linear operators, both from 1932. The amount of material in the field of functional analysis (in cluding operator theory) has grown to such an extent that it has become impossible now to include all of it in one book. This holds even more for text books. Therefore, authors of textbooks usually restrict themselves to normed spaces (or even to Hilbert space exclusively) and linear operators in these spaces. In more advanced texts Banach algebras and (or) topological vector spaces are sometimes included. It is only rarely, however, that the notion of order (partial order) is explicitly mentioned (even in more advanced exposi tions), although order structures occur in a natural manner in many examples (spaces of real continuous functions or spaces of measurable function~). This situation is somewhat surprising since there exist important and illuminating results for partially ordered vector spaces, in . particular for the case that the space is lattice ordered. Lattice ordered vector spaces are called vector lattices or Riesz spaces. The first results go back to F. Riesz (1929 and 1936), L. Kan torovitch (1935) and H. Freudenthal (1936).

This book was written expressly to serve as a textbook for a one- or two-semester introductory graduate course in functional analysis. Its (soon to be published) companion volume, Operators on Hilbert Space, is in tended to be used as a textbook for a subsequent course in operator theory. In writing these books we have naturally been concerned with the level of preparation of the potential reader, and, roughly speaking, we suppose him to be familiar with the approximate equivalent of a one-semester course in each of the following areas: linear algebra, general topology, complex analysis, and measure theory. Experience has taught us, however, that such a sequence of courses inevitably fails to treat certain topics that are important in the study of functional analysis and operator theory. For example, tensor products are frequently not discussed in a first course in linear algebra. Likewise for the topics of convergence of nets and the Baire category theorem in a course in topology, and the connections between measure and topology in a course in measure theory. For this reason we have chosen to devote the first ten chapters of this volume (entitled Part I) to topics of a preliminary nature. In other words, Part I summarizes in considerable detail what a student should (and eventually must) know in order to study functional analysis and operator theory successfully.

This text discusses electromagnetics from the view of operator theory, in a manner more commonly seen in textbooks of quantum mechanics. It includes a self-contained introduction to operator theory, presenting definitions and theorems, plus proofs of the theorems when these are simple or enlightening.

This book was written expressly to serve as a textbook for a one- or two-semester introductory graduate course in functional analysis. Its (soon to be published) companion volume, Operators on Hilbert Space, is in tended to be used as a textbook for a subsequent course in operator theory. In writing these books we have naturally been concerned with the level of preparation of the potential reader, and, roughly speaking, we suppose him to be familiar with the approximate equivalent of a one-semester course in each of the following areas: linear algebra, general topology, complex analysis, and measure theory. Experience has taught us, however, that such a sequence of courses inevitably fails to treat certain topics that are important in the study of functional analysis and operator theory. For example, tensor products are frequently not discussed in a first course in linear algebra. Likewise for the topics of convergence of nets and the Baire category theorem in a course in topology, and the connections between measure and topology in a course in measure theory. For this reason we have chosen to devote the first ten chapters of this volume (entitled Part I) to topics of a preliminary nature. In other words, Part I summarizes in considerable detail what a student should (and eventually must) know in order to study functional analysis and operator theory successfully.

An introductory exposition of the study of operator theory, presenting an interesting and rapid approach to some results which are not normally treated in an introductory source. The volume includes recent results and coverage of the current state of the field.

By a Hilbert-space operator we mean a bounded linear transformation be tween separable complex Hilbert spaces. Decompositions and models for Hilbert-space operators have been very active research topics in operator theory over the past three decades. The main motivation behind them is the in variant subspace problem: does every Hilbert-space operator have a nontrivial invariant subspace? This is perhaps the most celebrated open question in op erator theory. Its relevance is easy to explain: normal operators have invariant subspaces (witness: the Spectral Theorem), as well as operators on finite dimensional Hilbert spaces (witness: canonical Jordan form). If one agrees that each of these (i. e. the Spectral Theorem and canonical Jordan form) is important enough an achievement to dismiss any further justification, then the search for nontrivial invariant subspaces is a natural one; and a recalcitrant one at that. Subnormal operators have nontrivial invariant subspaces (extending the normal branch), as well as compact operators (extending the finite-dimensional branch), but the question remains unanswered even for equally simple (i. e. simple to define) particular classes of Hilbert-space operators (examples: hyponormal and quasinilpotent operators). Yet the invariant subspace quest has certainly not been a failure at all, even though far from being settled. The search for nontrivial invariant subspaces has undoubtly yielded a lot of nice results in operator theory, among them, those concerning decompositions and models for Hilbert-space operators. This book contains nine chapters.

An introduction to the theory of operator spaces, emphasising applications to C*-algebras.