No label defined (Q4941796)

This is an extremely nice book on operator theory tackled from the quantum mechanics point of view. It contains three sections: one for developing the basics of the theory plus the foundations of the dictionary quantum mechanics-operator theory: Hilbert spaces as the spaces of states, symmetric and selfadjoint operators as observables, the position and momentum operators\dots The second section is about the spectrum and Banach algebras. More analytic than algebraic in its approach, it covers adequately the full range: from the definition until the Stone-Čech compactification. The third section combines both sections to offer the spectral theorem and elements of functional calculus. All this would make a standard book. What makes this one very remarkable are several additions clearly showing the author's good taste and masterly of exposition: the beautiful 19 pages introduction about the quantum mechanics needed behind operator theory, a unusual section 1.6 containing an elementary finite-dimensional version of operational calculus, a section about the convolution algebra \(L_1\), a wealth of exercises (including suggestions) on topics not covered in the text, or with a different, either more algebraic or more topological, approach than that presented in the text \dots{} plus many little observations scattered through the text that really comfort the reader. Defaults, I can mention two. The first, I missed more algebra (or Banach space theory) when explaining the Stone-Cech compactification. For instance, exercise 70 mentions \(\beta \mathbb R\), but \(\beta \mathbb N\) never appears: thus, no ultrafilters and no \(\ell_1\). This could just be a matter of personal taste; nevertheless, it leads further: if no \(\mathbb N\), no Fourier analysis on \(\mathbb N\) or Fourier series either (I've already mentioned the nice section on the algebra \(L_1\) including its Fourier transform, although). The second, that the copy of the book I had lacks the pages 33-48 (it contains twice the 49-64).