Antisymmetric operators of finite range in Hilbert spaces (Q796064)

Let H be a real Hilbert space. For a bounded operator A on H define \(Or(A)=\{x\in H;(A,x)=0\}.\) It is observed that \(Or(A)=H\) if and only if A is antisymmetric (by contrast, in the complex case, \(Or(A)=H\) if and only if \(A=0)\). Various properties of antisymmetric operators are derived from this concept. The second part of the paper concerns operators of finite rank. \textit{E. Corbacho} [Doctoral thesis, Zaragoza (1978)] has shown that if A is a bounded operator defined on a complex Hilbert space, then \(\dim A(H)<n\) if and only if \(\det(Ax_ i,x_ j)=0\) for every choice of n-tuple \((x_ 1,...,x_ n)\) in H. This result is not valid in the real case. The authors investigate the latter case and proceed to characterize the antisymmetric operators of finite rank in terms of the above determinant.