On the normality of the sum of two normal operators (Q371630)

The goal of the paper under review is to provide sufficient conditions on two normal operators that make its sum a normal operator. Let \(A\) and \(B\) be two normal operators on a Hilbert space, possibly unbounded but densely defined. The author gives sufficient conditions for \(A+B\) to be normal in the following cases: both \(A\) and \(B\) are bounded, \(A\) is unbounded and \(B\) is bounded, both \(A\) and \(B\) are unbounded. The author starts with the case that both \(A\) and \(B\) are bounded and he makes the elementary observation that, if \(A\) commutes with \(B^\ast\), then \(A+B\) is normal. He also notices that the condition that \(A\) commutes with \(B^\ast\) can be replaced with the condition that \(A\) commutes with \(B\) using Fuglede's theorem. Finally, the author derives the following consequence: if \(A\) and \(B\) are two commuting self-adjoint operators, then the operator \(A+iB\) is normal. Next, the author turns to the case that \(A\) is unbounded and \(B\) is bounded. He shows that, if \(B^\ast A \subset AB^\ast\), then \(A+B\) is normal on \(D(A)\). He shows as a consequence that, if \(A\) is an unbounded self-adjoint operator with domain \(D(A)\) and \(B\) is a bounded self-adjoint operator such that \(BA \subset AB\), then the operator \(A + i B\) is normal. The proof requires some technical results and a careful manipulation of the domains. He also provides an example involving the differentiation operator on the Sobolev space to show that the assumption \(B^\ast A \subset AB^\ast\) cannot be dropped. Finally, the author considers the case that both \(A\) and \(B\) are unbounded, and he proves a result that is related to the previous one, although it does require more assumptions. Recall that \(B\) is said to be \(A\)-bounded if \(D(A) \subset D(B)\) and there are two constants \(a,b>0\) such that, for all \(f \in D(A)\), we have \[ \| Bf \| \leq a \| Af \| + b \| f \|. \] The infimum of all such \(a\) is called the relative bound. The author makes the following assumptions. First, the operator \(B\) is \(A\)-bounded with relative bound \(0< a <1\), second, \(B^\ast A \subset AB^\ast\) and \(B A^\ast \subset A^\ast B\), and third, \(D(A) \subset D(B^\ast A ) \cap D(BA^\ast)\). The author proves that \(A+B\) is normal on \(D(A)\) under these assumptions. He notes as a consequence that, if \(A\) and \(B\) are two unbounded, self-adjoint operators such that \(D(A) \subset D(BA)\), \(BA \subset AB\) and \(B\) is \(A\)-bounded with a relative bound \(0 < a <1\), then the operator \(A +i B\) is normal. He also provides an example with the Laplacian operator on the Sobolev space to show that the second assumption cannot be dropped.