Perturbations of matrix algebras (Q1820362)

Two subalgebras of \({\mathcal M}_ n\), the \(n\times n\) matrices, are close if their unit balls are close in the Hausdorff metric. Several examples of pathological behaviour are given. For example, close algebras need not be isomorphic; they may be isomorphic via a map close to the identity but not be similar; and they may be similar and close, but the similarity is necessarily far from the identity. On the other hand, if \({\mathcal A}\) is semisimple or if \({\mathcal A}=Alg {\mathcal L}\) for some distributive lattice \({\mathcal L}\), then \({\mathcal A}\) is stable in the sense that there exist constants \(\epsilon >0\) and \(M<\infty\) so that if dist(\({\mathcal A},{\mathcal B})=\delta <\epsilon\), then there is an invertible matrix S with \(\| S-I\| \leq M\delta\) such that S\({\mathcal B}S^{-1}={\mathcal A}\).