Operators with connected spectrum + compact operators = strongly irreducible operators (Q1974186)

Let \(L(H)\) be the algebra of all bounded linear operators acting on a complex, separable, infinite-dimensional Hilbert space \(H\). An operator \(T\in L(H)\) is said to be strongly irreducible if it does not commute with any nontrivial idempotents. It is proved that each operator \(T\in L(H)\) with connected spectrum can be represented as the sum of a strongly irreducible operator and a compact operator.