Continued fractions, wavelet time operators, and inverse problems (Q1425672)

Relations of the operator theory to the analytic theory of continued fractions, orthogonal functions and rational approximation are considered. The investigations concern two questions: (i) ``what is the spectral theory of continued fractions, orthogonal functions and rational approximation from the point of view of operator theory?'' (ii) ``what spectral information is needed to uniquely determine an operator?'' Question (i) is answered by means of comparing these two perspective. New historical and mathematical comments are given. In particular, the author concludes that orthogonal polynomials originated from continued fraction theory as well as from operator theory. Moreover, based on the book by \textit{M. H. Stone} [``Linear transformations in Hilbert space and their applications to analysis'' (AMS Colloq. Publ. 15) (1932; Zbl 0005.40003)], relations between these two spectral theory viewpoints within the context of Jacobi matrices are presented. Concerning question (ii), two classic inverse problems, namely the vibrating drum and the quantum inverse scattering problem are recalled, which shows that the answer is rather complicated. Next, a new general inverse problem is posed which consists in finding the induced structure operator. The author's recent results for time operators naturally induced by the corresponding wavelet basis are presented as an example. The inverse problem for the structure operator is partially solved in the case when the given information is a continued fraction only. A rich list of references completes this survey.