The Drazin invertibility of the difference and the sum of two idempotent operators (Q2654180)

Let \(\mathcal H\) be a Hilbert space and \(\mathcal B (\mathcal H)\) be the algebra of all bounded linear operators acting on \(\mathcal H\). Let \(T \in \mathcal B (\mathcal H)\). The Drazin inverse of \(T\), denoted by \(T^d\), is the unique operator \(X \in \mathcal B (\mathcal H)\) that satisfies \(T^{k+1}X = T^k,~XTX = X,~ TX=XT\). The least such \(k\) is called the index of \(T\). \(T\) is said to be Drazin invertible if the Drazin inverse of \(T\) exists. It is well-known that \(T\) is Drazin invertible if and only if \(T\) has a finite index. In the article under review, the authors establish equivalent conditions for the Drazin invertibility of differences and sums of idempotent operators on a Hilbert space. \(P \in \mathcal B (\mathcal H)\) is called idempotent if \(P^2=P\) and \(Q \in \mathcal B (\mathcal H)\) is called an orthogonal projection if \(Q = Q^2 =Q^*\). Let \(P\) be idempotent and \(Q\) be an orthogonal projection in \(\mathcal B (\mathcal H)\). Among other equivalences, the authors prove that the following are equivalent (Theorem 3.1): (1) \(PQ\) is Drazin invertible, (2) \(PQP\) is Drazin invertible, (3) \(P^*Q\) is Drazin invertible, (4) \(P^*QP^*\) is Drazin invertible. They further demonstrate (Theorem 3.2) that, if \(P\) and \(Q\) are idempotents in \(\mathcal B (\mathcal H)\), then \(P-Q\) is Drazin invertible if and only if \(I-PQ\) and \(P+Q-PQ\) are Drazin invertible.