On the Hopf decomposition (Q915103)

The paper treats with an extension of Hopf decomposition (a central result in the ergodic theory of positive contractions of \(L^ 1\)-spaces) to positive operators in Banach lattices. Let \((X,\Sigma,\mu)\) be a \(\sigma\)-finite measure space and let T be a positive contraction of \(L^ 1(X,\Sigma,\mu)\). Hopf's decomposition consists in splitting X into two measurable sets C and \(D=X\setminus C\), called the conservative and the dissipative part of X corresponding to T, respectively: the sets C and D are the only ones (mod \(\mu\)) with the property that for every \(u\in L^ 1(X,\Sigma,\mu)\), \(u\geq 0\), one has that \(\sum^{\infty}_{n=0}T^ nu=0\) or \(+\infty\) on C and \(\sum^{\infty}_{n=0}T^ nu<+\infty\) on D. This decomposition has been extended to positive contractions of spaces of continuous functions by Foguel and Horowitz. The author considers a Banach lattice E and a positive operator T: \(E\to E\); then he defines the conservative ideal \(I_ C\) and the dissipative ideal \(I_ D\) in E relative to T; the conservative projection band \(B_ C\) and the dissipative projection band \(B_ D\) in \(E'\) relative to the dual operator \(T'\). \(B_ C\) and \(B_ D\) are complementary ideals in \(E'\) and, if E has order continuous norm, then \(I_ C\) and \(I_ D\) are complementary ideals in E, too. Section 3 deals with subinvariant weak order units; if E has order continuous norm and \(e\in E'\) is a weak order unit of \(E'\) such that \(T'e\leq e\), then the projection of e on \(B_ D\) is \(T'\)-subinvariant. The last section is devoted to prove that the present extension of Hopf decomposition is a natural one and to investigate the relationship between this extension and that one due to Foguel.