On the structure of absolutely minimum attaining operators (Q2347147)

A bounded operator \(T\) from a Hilbert space \(H_1\) to a Hilbert space \(H_2\) is said to be minimum attaining if there exists a unit vector \(x_0 \in H_1\) such that \(\| Tx_0\|=m(T)\), where \(m(T)\) denotes the minimum modulus of \(T\) (a quantity that is defined by \(m(T)=\inf \{\| Tx\|: \| x\|=1\}\)). In addition, \(T\) is said to be absolutely minimum attaining if \(T_{|M}:M \rightarrow H_2\) is minimum attaining for any non-zero closed subspace \(M\) of \(H_1\). The paper describes positive absolutely minimum attaining operators on a Hilbert space \(H\). The authors prove that such operators have at most one eigenvalue with infinite multiplicity. The main result of the paper (Theorem 4.1) states that each positive absolutely minimum attaining operator \(T\) on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space \(H\) that does not possess eigenvalues of infinite multiplicity must be of the form \(T=\| T\|\,I-K\), where \(I\) is the identity operator on \(H\), and \(K\) is a positive compact operator on \(H\) with a finite dimensional (possibly trivial) null-space.