Sums and Products of Weighted Shifts (Q4330697)

This paper characterizes sums and products of weighted shifts as well as the closures of these and associated sets. For classifying the results, let \(\mathcal W\) (resp. \(\mathcal V\)) be the set of bilateral (resp. unilateral) weighted shift operators on a complex, infinite dimensional, separable Hilbert space \(\mathcal H\). Given a set \({\mathcal S}\subset{\mathcal B} ({\mathcal H})\) and an integer \(k\geq 1\), let \({\mathcal S}_k\) (resp. \(\sum_k {\mathcal S})\) be the set \(\{S_1S_2\dots S_k:S_i\in{\mathcal S}, 1\leq i\leq k\}\) (resp. \(\{S_1+S_2+ \cdots +S_k:S_i\in{\mathcal S}, 1\leq i\leq k\})\). Also let \({\mathcal N},{\mathcal L}\) and \(\mathcal J\) be, respectively, the set of normal, Laurent and Toeplitz operators on \(\mathcal H\). Now we can state the main results: (i) \(\overline {\mathcal W}_k={\mathcal N}_3\) when \(k\geq 6\) and \({\mathcal W}_k ={\mathcal N}_3\), when \(k\geq 10\). (ii) For each \(k\geq 7\), \(\overline {\mathcal V}_k= \{T\in {\mathcal B} ({\mathcal H}):T\) is not semi-Fredholm, or \(T\) is Fredholm of index \(-k\}\). (iii) \({\mathcal B}({\mathcal H} )=\sum_6 \overline{\mathcal V}_1=\overline {\sum_6 {\mathcal V}_1}=\sum_6 \overline {\mathcal W}_1=\overline {\sum_6{\mathcal W}_1}=\sum_{18} {\mathcal V}_1= \sum_{18} {\mathcal W}_1\). (iv) \({\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})=\sum_3 {\mathcal W}_k= \sum_3{\mathcal W}_k=\sum_6 {\mathcal V}_k\) for all \(k\geq 2\) and \({\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})= \sum_2 {\mathcal W}_k\) for all \(k\geq 6\). (v) \({\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})=\overline{ {\mathcal W}_k}+\overline {{\mathcal W}_k} =\sum_4 \overline{{\mathcal V}_k}\) for all \(k\geq 2\) and \({\mathcal B}({\mathcal H} )=\overline{{\mathcal V}_k+{\mathcal V}_k}\) for all \(k\geq 6\). (vi) \({\mathcal B} ({\mathcal H})= \sum_6{\mathcal L}=\overline{\sum_4{\mathcal L}}=\overline {\sum_6 {\mathcal T}}\).