Polar decomposition under perturbations of the scalar product (Q4941602)

An important decomposition theorem for bounded linear operators \(T\) on a Hilbert space \(H\) states that if \(T\) is invertible then its polar decomposition \(T= UP\) (\(U\) unitary and \(P\) positive definite) is unique. If \(G\) denotes the set of all invertible operators, then the map \(\pi\) of \(G\) into the set \(U\) of unitary operators is called the unitary part map. If \(A\) is a positive definite invertible operator, then for the \(A\)-symmetrizable operators we get the \(A\)-unitary map \(\pi_A\). For two such operators \(A\) and \(B\) the restriction of \(\pi_A\) to the unitary operators turns out to be a bijection. This is based on the existence of positive definite solutions of the Pedersen-Takesaki operator equation \(XAX= B\). The form of the solution for \(A\), \(B\) invertible and positive definite is presented in Lemma 3.1. The present paper is devoted to a study of the \(A\)-unitary-part maps and their generalizations to the corresponding theory for unital \(C^*\)-algebras.