Minimal length curves in unitary orbits of a Hermitian compact operator (Q5964086)

This paper continues previous work of the same authors on curves of minimal length in the reduced unitary orbit of a compact selfadjoint operator \(A\) acting in a Hilbert space \(H\), \[ {\mathcal O}_A=\{uAu^*: u \text{ unitary in } H \text{ with } u-1 \text{ compact}\}. \] The Finsler metric in \({\mathcal O}_A\) is the quotient metric induced by the usual norm of \(B(H)\). Namely, since for \(b\in{\mathcal O}_A\), \[ (T{\mathcal O}_A)_b=\{x=[Y,b]: Y^*=-Y \text{ compact}\}, \] then \[ |x|_b=\inf\{ \|Y\|: x=[Y,b]\}. \] L.\,Recht and his collaborators introduced this metric for general homogeneous spaces of the unitary group of a \(C^*\)-algebra and proved a general theorem which, adapted to this context, says that, if \(Y_0\) realizes this infimum (such \(Y_0\) is called a minimal lifting of \(x\)), then the curve \[ \gamma(t)=e^{tY_0}be^{-tY_0} \] has minimal length for \(t\) in the interval \([-\frac{\pi}{2\|Y_0\|},\frac{\pi}{2\|Y_0\|}]\) [\textit{C. E. Durán} et al., Adv. Math. 184, No.~2, 342--366 (2004; Zbl 1060.53076)]. In a~previous work, the present authors showed that compact minimal liftings may not exist [Linear Algebra Appl. 439, No.~10, 3044--3056 (2013; Zbl 1327.47009)]. In the present work, they obtain, in Theorem 2, sufficient conditions for the existence of compact minimal liftings. Remarkably, in Theorem 8, they show the existence of minimal curves of exponential type, where the exponent is not a compact minimal lifting. Additionally, they show in Theorem 17 that these odd curves can be uniformly approximated by minimal curves with exponents that are compact minimal liftings.