The Weyl calculus, joint spectra and commutativity of compact selfadjoint operators (Q1907227)

Let \(A= (A_1,\dots, A_n)\) be an \(n\)-tuple of bounded, selfadjoint Hilbert space operators. Following H. Weyl one can define a functional calculus of \(A\) with rapidly decreasing smooth functions \(f\in {\mathcal S}(\mathbb{R}^n)\) as follows: \[ T(A) f= (2\pi)^{- n/2} \int_{\mathbb{R}^n} e^{i\langle \xi, A\rangle} \widehat f(\xi) d\xi. \] The advantage of this construction lies in the fact that it applies to non-commutative \(n\)-tuples \(A\). The main result of the note under review states that, for \(n\)-tuples \(A\) of compact selfadjoint operators, the support of the distribution \(T(A)\) coincides with the right spectrum of \(A\) if and only if \(A\) is commutative. The proof considerably simplifies prior techniques used in similar contexts. The main ingredient is a Shilov type decomposition of the \(n\)-tuple \(A\) with respect to the connected components of \(\text{supp } T(A)\).