Elements of operator theory

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to functional analysis (46-01) Theorems of Hahn-Banach type; extension and lifting of functionals and operators (46A22) Open mapping and closed graph theorems; completeness (including (B)-, (B_r)-completeness) (46A30) Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to operator theory (47-01) General (adjoints, conjugates, products, inverses, domains, ranges, etc.) (47A05) Spectrum, resolvent (47A10) Hermitian and normal operators (spectral measures, functional calculus, etc.) (47B15)

Review text

This is a rigorous logically well-organized textbook presenting basic principles and elementary theory of operators. It is written with great care gradually increasing in complexity. For reading it only the knowledge of some elements of analytic functions (of a complex variable) and some facts about the measure and integral is assumed. In particular, it is largely self-contained and will be very useful for a self-study. Chapter 1 (Set-Theoretic Structures) introduces sets and relations, functions, equivalence relations, ordering, lattices and cardinality. Chapter 2 (Algebraic Structures) presents linear spaces, linear manifolds, linear independence, Hamel basis, linear transformations, isomorphisms, isomorphic equivalence, direct sums. Chapter 3 (Topological Structures) treats rather detailed metric spaces, convergence and continuity, axioms of the topology generated by open sets, topological linear spaces, dense sets and separable spaces, complete spaces, the Baire category theorem, compact sets, sequential compactness. Chapter 4 (Banach Spaces) considers normed spaces, bounded linear transformations (bounded linear operators), open mapping theorem, Banach-Steinhaus theorem (the uniform boundedness principle) and operator convergence, compact operators, three versions of the Hahn-Banach theorems, dual spaces. Chapter 5 (Hilbert Spaces) describes among others inner product spaces, orthogonality, the Riesz representation theorem and weak convergence (of a sequence of bounded linear transformations of a Hilbert space into an other Hilbert space), adjoint and self-adjoint operators. Chapter 6 (The Spectral Theorem) covers in the first part the theory of normal operator noting at the end that the involved classes of operator satisfy the following proper inclusion: \[ \text{Normal}\subset \text{Quasinormal} \subset\text{Subnormal}\subset \text{Hyponormal}\subset \text{Normaloid}. \] Others parts consider the spectrum of an operator and of a compact operator, spectral and numerical radius. Finally, it proves first the spectral theorem for a compact normal operator. The spectral theorem for a normal operator is cited as follows: If \(N\in B[H]\) is normal then there exists a unique spectral measure \(P\) on \(\sum_{\sigma(N)}\) such that \(N= \int\lambda d P_\lambda\). If \(\Lambda\) is a nonempty relatively open subset of \(\sigma(N)\), then \(P(\lambda)\neq 0\). The final part discusses an open problem whether every operator (on an infinite-dimensional complex separable Hilbert space) has a nontrivial invariant subspace. It is known that every subnormal operator has a nontrivial invariant subspace. However, the same problem concerning a hyponormal operator is still not solved. There are about 300 problems which continue the subject. Also, more than 80 examples give a reader to understand the proved results. The type of routine exercises is omitted. The book is addressed to graduate students in mathematics and engineering, to mathematicians and scientists working in the subject. Definitions and theorems are motivated and clearly stated. In general theorems are completely proved. The forte features of the book are the teaching style, illuminating explanation of numerous delicate points, detailed presentation of topics. Hence, the book can be warmly recommended to a first work for the study of operator theory. \{Remark: Compare spectral theorems in the present book with ones in a book by \textit{J. B. Conway} [``A Course in Functional Analysis, second edition, Springer, New York (1990; Zbl 0706.46003)]. It would be opportune to add to References a book by \textit{A. I. Plessner} [``Spectral theory of linear operators (Russian), Nauka, Moscow (1963)].\} To conclude, the book under review is an admirable work for a modern introduction in operator theory.

Recommendations

Cited in

(37)

This page was built for publication: Elements of operator theory

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2723197)