Author Description

This book presents a panorama of operator theory. It treats a variety of classes of linear operators which illustrate the richness of the theory, both in its theoretical developments and its applications. For each of the classes various differential and integral operators motivate or illustrate the main results. The topics have been updated and enhanced by new developments, many of which appear here for the first time. Interconnections appear frequently and unexpectedly. This second volume consists of five parts: triangular representations, classes of Toeplitz operators, contractive operators and characteristic operator functions, Banach algebras and algebras of operators, and extension and completion problems. The exposition is self-contained and has been simplified and polished in an effort to make advanced topics accessible to a wide audience of students and researchers in mathematics, science and engineering. Contents: Vol. I - This book presents a panorama of operator theory. It treats a variety of classes of linear operators which illustrate the richness of the theory, both in its theoretical developments and its applications. For each of the classes various differential and integral operators motivate or illustrate the main results. The topics have been updated and enhanced by new developments, many of which appear here for the first time. Interconnections appear frequently and unexpectedly. The present volume consists of four parts: general spectral theory, classes of compact operators, Fredholm and Wiener-Hopf operators, and classes of unbounded operators: The exposition is self-contained and has been simplified and polished in an effort to make advanced topics accessible to a wide audience of students and researchers in mathematics, science and engineering. "... Used as a graduate textbook, the book allows the instructor several good selections of topics to build a course.... The authors took great care to polish and simplify the exposition; as a result, the book can serve also as an excellent basis for reading courses or for self-study.... Besides being a textbook, the book is a valuable reference source for a wide audience of mathematicians, physicists and engineers. The specialists in functional analysis and operator theory will find most of the topics familiar, although the exposition is often novel or non-traditional, making the material more accessible...." (Zentralblatt für Mathematik) / "This book presents an excellently chosen panorama of operator theory. It shows for several times the fruitful application of complex analysis to problems in operator theory.... Each part contains interesting exercises and comments on the literature of the topic." (Monatshefte für Mathematik)