Operators that achieve the norm (Q421111)

This paper is an investigation of Hilbert space operators achieving their operator norms on the unit sphere. An operator \(T \in B(H,K)\) is said to satisfy the property \(\mathcal{N}\) if there exists an element \(x\) in the unit sphere of \(H\) such that \(\|T\|=\sup\{\|Ty\|: \|y\|=1\}= \|Tx\|\). It is known that any compact operator is an \(\mathcal{N}\) operator. Several characterizations and properties of operators satisfying \(\mathcal{N}\) are presented. For instance, it is shown that a self-adjoint operator \(T\in B(H)\) satisfies \(\mathcal{N}\) if and only if \(\|T\|\) or \(-\|T\|\) is an eigenvalue of \(T\). It is also proved that \(T \in B(H,K)\) satisfies \(\mathcal{N}\) if and only if so does \(T^*\). It is said that \(T\) satisfies property \(\mathcal{AN}\) if for all closed subspaces \(\{0\} \neq M \subseteq H\), \(T|_M\) satisfies property \(\mathcal{N}\). Any compact operator is an \(\mathcal{AN}\) operator. Again, several examples and characterizations of \(\mathcal{AN}\) operators are given. The authors prove that an orthogonal projection \(Q\in B(H)\) satisfies the \(\mathcal{AN}\) property if and only if the dimension of the null space or the dimension of the rank of \(Q\) is finite. They also analyze the structure of the positive operators satisfying the \(\mathcal{AN}\) property.