Skew symmetry of a class of operators (Q380314)

A linear operator on a complex Hilbert space \(\mathcal{H}\) is called \textit{skew-symmetric} if there exists a conjugation (a conjugate-linear, isometric, involution) \(C\) on \(\mathcal{H}\) such that \(T = - CT^*C\). These operators are closely related to the class of complex symmetric operators. Moreover, the skew-symmetric operators on \(\mathcal{H}\) are precisely those that can be represented as a skew-symmetric matrix with respect to some orthonormal basis of \(\mathcal{H}\). The main result of this paper (Theorem 1.3) is a criterion for determining when an operator of the form \(T = \sum_{i \in \Lambda} a_j ( e_i^{(1)} \otimes f_i^{(1)} - e_i^{(2)} \otimes f_i^{(2)})\), where \(\{ e_i^{(1)}, e_i^{(2)}\}_{i \in \Lambda}\) and \(\{ f_i^{(1)}, f_i^{(2)}\}_{i \in \Lambda}\) are two orthonormal subsets of \(\mathcal{H}\), is a skew-symmetric operator. As a consequence, the authors obtain a decomposition (Theorem 4.1) for compact skew-symmetric operators similar in spirit to the corresponding decomposition for complex symmetric operators [\textit{S. R. Garcia} and \textit{M. Putinar}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 359, No. 8, 3913--3931 (2007; Zbl 1123.47030), Theorem 3]. They also show that a partial isometry is skew-symmetric if and only if its compression to its initial space is Hamiltonian, generalizing [\textit{S. R. Garcia} and \textit{W. R. Wogen}, J. Funct. Anal. 257, No. 4, 1251--1260 (2009; Zbl 1166.47023), Theorem 2] (\(T\) is Hamiltonian if there exists an anticonjugation \(K\) such that \(T = KT^*K\), see [\textit{S. R. Garcia} and \textit{J. E. Tener}, J. Oper. Theory 68, No. 1, 179--203 (2012; Zbl 1274.15026)]).