Pairs of projections: geodesics, Fredholm and compact pairs (Q484216)

In the paper under review, the author studies geometric aspects of pair of projections. A pair of orthogonal projections \((P,Q)\) in a Hilbert space \(\mathcal{H}\) is called a Fredholm pair if the operator \[ QP|_{\operatorname{Ran}(P)}:\operatorname{Ran}(P) \to\operatorname{Ran}(Q) \] is Fredholm. The index \(i(P,Q)\) is defined as the index of this operator. The pair \((P,Q)\) is said to be a compact pair if \(P-Q\) is compact. Let \(\mathcal{F}\) and \(\mathcal{C}\) be the set of Fredholm pairs and compact pairs, respectively. It is not difficult to see that \(\mathcal{C} \subset \mathcal{F}\), and this inclusion is strict. It is proved that \(\mathcal{F}\) is open in \(\mathcal{P} \times \mathcal{P}\), where \(\mathcal{P}\) is the manifold of orthogonal projections in \(\mathcal{H}\). Moreover, two Fredholm pairs \((P,Q)\), \((P_0,Q_0)\) in the same connected component of \(\mathcal{P} \times \mathcal{P}\) belong to the same connected component of \(\mathcal{F}\) if and only if \(i(P,Q) = i(P_0,Q_0)\). On the other hand, the connected components of \(\mathcal{C}\) are also parametrized by the index, and each one is a non complemented real analytic submanifold of \(\mathcal{P} \times \mathcal{P}\). The other results concern geodesics in \(\mathcal{P}\), \(\mathcal{F}\) and \(\mathcal{C}\). It is natural to measure the length of a smooth curve in \(\mathcal{P}\) as \[ L(\gamma)=\int_0^1 \| \dot{\gamma}(t) \| \, dt, \] where \(\|\cdot \|\) is the usual operator norm. It is known that geodesics in \(\mathcal{P}\) with respect to the canonical connection have minimal length (see [\textit{H. Porta} and \textit{L. Recht}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 100, 464--466 (1987; Zbl 0656.46042)]). The main result in this regard is the following: Theorem 3.1: Let \(P\) and \(Q\) be orthogonal projections in \(\mathcal{H}\). The following statements are equivalent: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize} \item[1.] There exists a geodesic \(\delta\) in \(\mathcal{P}\), which joins \(P\) and \(Q\), and have minimal length among all rectifiable curves in \(\mathcal P\) joining the same endpoints. \item [2.] There exists a geodesic \(\delta\) in \(\mathcal{P}\), which joins \(P\) and \(Q\). \item [3.] \(\dim(\operatorname{Ran}(P) \cap\operatorname{ker}(Q)) = \dim(\operatorname{Ran}(Q) \cap\operatorname{ker}(P))\). \end{itemize}}