Strong sums of projections in von Neumann factors (Q732046)

Here \(H\) denotes a separable Hilbert space. The paper deals with positive bounded operators on \(H\), i.e., in \(\mathcal{L}(H)\), which can be written as sums of projections. \textit{P. A. Fillmore} [Acta Sci. Math. 28, 285--288 (1967; Zbl 0159.19302)] had shown that every operator in \(\mathcal{L}(H)\) is a linear combination of projections with positive coefficients. Subsequent authors considered infinite sums of projections which converge in the strong topology of bounded operators on \(H\). The present authors consider a countably decomposable von Neumannn factor in \(\mathcal{L}{(H)}\) so all infinite projections can be assumed to be equivalent. They classify strong sums in terms of \(A_{+}\) and \(A_{-}\), respectively excess and defect parts of a positive operator. For example the \textit{excess} \(A_{+}\) of a positive operator \(A\) is defined to be (\(A-I)\chi_{A}(1, \|A\|]\) where \(\chi_{A}\) denotes the spectral measure of \(A\). An operator is called diagonalisable (or discrete) if it can be written as a sum of mutually orthogonal projections with positive coefficients. For example an operator \(A\) in a type I factor, a necessary and sufficient condition for being a strong sum of projections is that it has either \(\text{Tr}(A_{+}) = \infty\) or \(\text{Tr}(A_{-}) \leq \text{Tr}(A_{+}) < \infty\) where \(\text{Tr}(A_{+}) - \text{Tr}(A_{-})\) is \(0\) or a positive integer. For a type II factor with faithful trace \(\tau\), for a (diagonalisable) operator \(A\), a necessary (and sufficient) condition to be a strong sum is that \(\tau(A_{+}) \geq \tau(A_{-})\). Operators in type III factors are similarly dealt with.