Approximation by chaotic operators and by conjugate classes. (Q1406529)

Let \(\mathcal L(\mathcal H )\) denote the space of bounded operators on a Hilbert space. An operator \(T\) is said to be hypercyclic if the closure of the orbit under \(T\) of some vector in \(\mathcal H\) is dense in \(\mathcal H \). An operator \(T\) is said to be chaotic if it is hypercyclic and it has a dense set of periodic points. The authors of the paper under review prove that every operator in \(\mathcal L(\mathcal H)\) is the sum of two operators in the norm closure of chaotic operators. The proof is based on a result of \textit{D. A. Herrero} [J. Funct. Anal. 99, 179--190 (1991; Zbl 0758.47016)] in which he characterized the norm closure of chaotic and hypercyclic operators and in the fact that the norm closure of nilpotent operators is known. The authors also prove that certain operators satisfying certain prescribed cyclic properties are dense in \(\mathcal L(\mathcal H )\) endowed with the strong operator topology. Here they use a result of \textit{D. W. Haldwin}, \textit{E. A. Nordgren}, \textit{H. Radjavi} and \textit{P. Rosenthal} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 76, 250--252 (1979; Zbl 0431.47010)] characterizing when the orbit of similarity is dense in the strong operator topology. Independently, \textit{S. Grivaux} [J. Funct. Anal. 202, 486--503 (2003; Zbl 1050.47010)] has shown that every bounded operator on Hilbert space is the sum of two chaotic operators. She has also provided an example of a bounded operator on a Banach space that cannot be written as the sum of two hypercyclic operators.