Parametrizing projections with selfadjoint operators (Q472438)

The paper under review records interesting new progress on the geometry of the Grassmann manifold \({\mathcal P}\) consisting of orthogonal projections on a complex Hilbert space \({\mathcal H}\) and on some subsets of \({\mathcal P}\). For a fixed self-adjoint unitary operator \(J=J^*=J^{-1}\in{\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})\), one denotes by \(E_\pm\in{\mathcal P}\) the orthogonal projections on the subspaces \({\mathcal H}_\pm:=\text{Ker}(T\mp 1)\) with \({\mathcal H}={\mathcal H}_{+}\oplus{\mathcal H}_{-}\). One also defines the real Banach space \({\mathcal B}_J:=\{X=X^*\in {\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})\mid XJ=-JX\}\) with its unit ball \({\mathcal D}_J:=\{X\in {\mathcal B}_J\mid \| X\|\leq 1\}\). One then defines the following \({\mathcal P}\)-valued maps: {\parindent=0.7cm\begin{itemize}\item[--] the exponential map \(\exp_J:{\mathcal D}_J\to{\mathcal P}\), \(\exp_J(X):=e^{(i\pi/2)X}E_+e^{-(i\pi/2)X}\); \item[--] the Davis map \(p_J:{\mathcal D}_J\to{\mathcal P}\), \(p_J(X):=\frac{1}{2}(1+X+J(1-X^2)^{1/2})\); \item[--] the graph map \(\Gamma_J:{\mathcal B}_J\to{\mathcal P}\), \(\Gamma_J(X):=(J+X)(1+X^2)^{-1}+E_-\). \end{itemize}} These are the central objects studied in this paper, and the main results establish characterizations and geometric properties of the ranges of these maps and of their restrictions to the intersection of \({\mathcal D}_J\) and \({\mathcal B}_J\) with the Schatten ideals and with the ideal of finite-rank operators. Quite interesting relations to the theory of Fredhom operators and their index are also pointed out.