The Invariant Subspace Problem for Non-Archimedean Banach Spaces

It is proved that every infinite-dimensional non-archimedean Banach space of countable type admits a linear continuous operator without a non-trivial closed invariant subspace. This solves a problem stated by A. C. M. van Rooij and W. H. Schikhof in 1992.

Operator algebras with a reduction property

Given a representation θ: A → B(H) of a Banach algebra A on a Hilbert space H, H is said to have the reduction property as an A—module if every closed invariant subspace of H is complemented by a closed invariant subspace; A has the total reduction property if for every representation θ: A → B(H), H has the reduction property.We show that a C*—algebra has the total reduction property if and only if all its representations are similar to *—representations. The question of whether all C*-algebras have this property is the famous ‘similarity problem’ of Kadison.We conjecture that non-self-adjoint operator algebras with the total reduction property are always isomorphic to C*-algebras, and prove this result for operator algebras consisting of compact operators.

Algebras Intertwining Normal and Decomposable Operators

The celebrated result of Lomonosov [6] on the existence of invariant subspaces for operators commuting with a compact operator have been generalized in different directions (for example see [2], [7], [8], [9]). The main result of [9] (see also [7]) is: If is a norm closed algebra of (bounded) operators on an infinite dimensional (complex) Banach space , if K is a nonzero compact operator on , and if then has a non-trivial (closed) invariant subspace. In [7], it is mentioned that the above result holds if instead of compactness for K we assume that K is a non-invertible injective operator with a non-zero eigenvalue belonging to the class of decomposable, hyponormal, or subspectral operators.

Invariant Complements to Closed Invariant Subspaces

The question under what conditions a closed invariant subspace possesses a closed invariant complement is of major importance in operator theory. In general it remains unanswered. In this paper we drop the requirement that the invariant complement be closed. We show in section 1 that the question is answerable under fairly mild conditions for a quasinilpotent operator (Theorem 1.5). These conditions will cover the case of a quasinilpotent operator with dense range and no point spectrum. In section 2 we discuss the consequences for the Volterra operator V. Since V is unicellular, its proper closed invariant subspaces do not possess closed invariant complements. However, they are all algebraically complemented (Proposition 2.1).

Uniqueness of invariant means on certain introverted spaces

Let S be a topological semigroup with separately continuous multiplication and H a uniformly closed invariant subspace of LUC(S) (the space of left uniformly continuous bounded functions on S ) that contains the constants. It is shown that if H is left introverted and H admits a tight two-sided invariant mean m, then for each h ∈ H, m(h) is the unique constant function in the norm closed convex hull of the left orbit of h; consequently, H has a unique left invariant mean. (In fact, it is enough for H to admit a tight right invariant mean and a left invariant mean. ) For certain S, a similar result is obtained when H is a left compact-open introverted subspace of LCC(S) (the space of left compact-open continuous functions on S ).