On commuting compact self-adjoint operators on a Pontryagin space (Q5937206)

It is known that a Pontryagin space \(K\) of index \(k\) can be decomposed using a compact self-adjoint operator \(A\), which has a nondegenerate root subspace at the eigenvalue 0. This decomposition consists of two subspaces, a Hilbert space \(H\) and a Pontryagin space \(F\), both of which are invariant under \(A\) with \(\dim F\leq 3k\). Some multi-parameter boundary value problems of elliptic type introduce \(n\)-tuples of commuting compact self-adjoint operators on a Pontryagin space. Therefore, the authors of this paper aim to extend the known results from one operator \(A\) to \(n\)-tuples of operators. The main result states a similar decomposition of \(K\), i.e., \(H\) is a Hilbert space and \(F\) is a Pontryagin space of index \(k\) for which \(\dim F\leq(n+2)k\). The last section of the paper contains a classification of \(n\)-tuples of operators for the case \(k=1\).