Applications of completions of operator matrices to reverse order law for \(\{1\}\)-inverses of operators on Hilbert spaces (Q491115)

Let \({\mathcal H}, {\mathcal K}\) be separable Hilbert spaces and \({\mathcal B}({\mathcal H},{\mathcal K})\) denote the space of all bounded linear operators from \(\mathcal H\) into \({\mathcal K}\). For \(A \in {\mathcal B}({\mathcal H},{\mathcal K})\), let \({\mathcal R}(A)\) and \({\mathcal N}(A)\) denote the range space and the null space, respectively. \(T \in {\mathcal B}({\mathcal K},{\mathcal H})\) is referred to as a \(\{1\}\)-inverse of \(A\) if \(ATA=A\). If \(T\) is a \(\{1\}\)-inverse of \(A\), then we write \(T \in A\{1\}\). Let us observe that a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such an operator \(T\) is the requirement that \({\mathcal R}(A)\) is closed. In particular, the Moore-Penrose inverse of \(A\) is an operator \(T \in {\mathcal B}({\mathcal K},{\mathcal H})\) (which is unique, if it exists) that satisfies the equations \(ATA=A\), \(TAT=T\), \((AT)^*=AT\) and \((TA)^*=TA\). \(A\) is called regular if its Moore-Penrose inverse exists. The authors consider the reverse order law \((AB)\{1\} \subseteq B\{1\}A\{1\}\) and present several necessary and sufficient conditions for it to hold. A sample result: Let \(A\) and \(B\) be bounded linear operators such that \(AB\) is regular. Then \((AB)\{1\} \subseteq B\{1\}A\{1\}\) holds if and only if \(n(A^*) \leq n(B), n(A_1^*) + n(A^*) \leq n(B^*)\) and \(n(B^*)\) is finite. Here, \(n(.)\) denotes the dimension of the null space and \(A_1\) is the restriction of \(A\) from \({\mathcal R}(B)\) into \({\mathcal N}(A^*)\).