## Category: teaching

### Topics in Operator Theory, Lecture 1: Introduction

This is a summary of the first lecture, which was introductory in nature.

$H$ will always denote a Hilbert space over $\mathbb{C}$. $B(H)$ will always denote the algebra of bounded operators on $H$. I am interested in operators on Hilbert space; various subspaces and algebras of operators that come with various structures, as well as the relationship between these subspaces and structures; and connections and applications of the above to other areas, in particular complex function theory and matrix theory.

I expect students to know the spectral theorem for normal operators on Hilbert space (see here. A proof in the selfadjoint case that assumes very little from the reader can be found in my notes, see Section 3 and 4). I also will assume some familiarity with Banach algebras and commutative C*-algebras – the student should contact me for references.

We begin by surveying different kinds of structures of interest.  Read the rest of this entry »

### Course announcement: Operator Spaces, Operator Algebras and Related Topics (Topics in Operator Theory 106435)

Next week I will begin teaching a topics course “Topics in Operator Theory – 106435”. This is an advanced graduate course, where “advanced” means that I expect students to be familiar with graduate functional analysis.

The official name of the course is “Topics in Operator Theory” but the true title is “Operator Spaces, Operator Algebras and Related Topics”. There are two somewhat competing goals driving this course: the first goal is to give students a taste of the beautiful subjects of operator spaces and operator algebras, broadening their view of functional analysis, and giving those who wish enough tools to delve into the literature in this subject. The second goal is to train students to understand the problems in which I am interested and to get acquainted with the methods of the theory so that they will be able to carry out research in my group. The choice of topics will therefore be somewhat eclectic. In fact, I have several different plans for this course, and I am keeping things vague on purpose so that I am free to change course as the wind blows (and as I see who the students are, what their background is and where their interests lie).

What else? The course will be given in English. There is no official web page for the course – I might open exercises online on this blog. The grade will be based on some exercises that I will give throughout the semester, and a final “big homework” project.

### A review of my book A First Course in Functional Analysis

A review for my book A First Course in Functional Analysis appeared in Zentralblatt Math – here is a link to the review. I am quite thankful that someone has read my book and bothered to write a review, and that zBMath publishes reviews. That’s all great. Now I have a few words to say about it. This is an opportunity for me to bring up the subject of my book and highlight some things worth highlighting.

I am not too happy about this review. It is not that it is a negative review – actually it has a rather kind air to it. However, I am somewhat disappointed in the information that the review contains, and I am not sure that it does the reader some service which the potential readers could not achieve by simply reading the table of contents and the preface to the book (it is easy to look inside the book in the Amazon page; of course, it is also easy to find a copy of the book online).

The reviewer correctly notices that one key feature of the book is the treatment of $L^2[a,b]$ as a completion of $C([a,b])$, and that this is used for applications in analysis. However, I would love it if a reviewer would point out to the fact that, although the idea of thinking about $L^2[a,b]$ as a completion space is not new, few (if any) have attempted to actually walk the extra mile and work with $L^2$ in this way (i.e., without requiring measure theory) all the way up to rigorous and significant applications in analysis. Moreover, it would be nice if my attempt was compared to other such attempts (if they exist), and I would like to hear opinions about whether my take is successful.

I am grateful that the reviewer reports on the extensive exercises (this is indeed, in my opinion, one of the pluses of new books in general and my book in particular), but there are a couple of other innovations that are certainly worth remarking on, and I hope that the next reviewer does not miss them. For example, is it a good idea to include a chapter on Hilbert function spaces in an introductory text to FA? (a colleague of mine told me that he would keep that out). Another example: I think that my chapter on applications of compact operators is quite special. This chapter has two halves: one on integral equations and one on functional equations. Now, the subject of integral equations is well trodden and takes a central place in some introductions to FA, and one might wonder whether anything new can be done here in terms of the organization and presentation of the material. So, I think it is worth remarking about whether or not my exposition has anything to add. The half on applications of compact operators to integral equations contains some beautiful and highly non-trivial material that has never appeared in a book before, not to mention that functional equations of any kind are rarely considered in introductions to FA; this may also be worth a comment.

### Introduction to von Neumann algebras, Lecture 5 (comparison of projections and classification into types of von Neumann algebras)

In the previous lecture we discussed the group von Neumann algebras, and we saw that they can never be isomorphic to $B(H)$. There is something fundamentally different about these algebras, and this was manifested by the existence of a trace. von Neumann algebras with traces are special, and the existence or non-existence of a trace can be used to classify von Neumann algebras, into rather broad “types”. In this lecture we will study the theory of Murray and von Neumann on the comparison of projections and the use of this theory to classify von Neumann algebras into “types”. We will also see how traces (or generalized traces) fit in. (For preparing these notes, I used Takesaki (Vol I) and Kadison-Ringrose (Vol. II).)

Most of the time we will stick to the assumption that all Hilbert spaces appearing are separable. This will only be needed at one or two spots (can you spot them?).

In addition to “Exercises”, I will start suggesting “Projects”. These projects might require investing a significant amount of time (a student is not expected to choose more than one project).

### The preface to “A First Course in Functional Analysis”

I am not yet done being excited about my new book, A First Course in Functional Analysis. I will use my blog to advertise my book, one last time. This post is for all the people who might wonder: “why did you think that anybody needs a new book on functional analysis?” Good question! The answer is contained in the preface to the book, which is pasted below the fold.

### Introduction to von Neumann algebras, Lecture 4 (group von Neumann algebras)

As the main reference for this lecture we use (more-or-less) Section 1.3 in the notes by Anantharaman and Popa (here is a link to the notes on Popa’s homepage).

As for exercises:  Read the rest of this entry »

### Our new baby book

Finally, after a long delay, a package arrived containing some hard copies of my book.

### A First Course in Functional Analysis (my book)

She’hechiyanu Ve’kiyemanu!

My book, A First Course in Functional Analysis, to be published with Chapman and Hall/CRC, will soon be out. There is already a cover, check it out on the CRC Press website.

This book is written to accompany an undergraduate course in functional analysis, where the course I had in mind is precisely the course that we give here at the Technion, with the same constraints. Constraint number 1: a course in measure theory is not mandatory in our undergraduate program. So how can one seriously teach functional analysis with significant applications? Well, one can, and I hope that this book proves that one can. I already wrote before, measure theory is not a must. Of course anyone going for a graduate degree in math should study measure theory (and get an A), but I’d like the students to be able to study functional analysis before that (so that they can do a masters degree in operator theory with me).

I believe that the readers will find many other original organizational contributions to the presentation of functional analysis in this book, but I leave them for you to discover. Instructors can request an e-copy for inspection (in the link to the publisher website above), friends and direct students can get a copy from me, and I hope that the rest of the world will recommend this book to their library (or wait for the libgen version).

### The dominated convergence theorem for the Riemann and the improper Riemann integral (Measure theory is a must – part II)

(Hello students of Infi 2 – this post is for you).

In this post I will describe the dominated convergence theorem (DCT) for the Riemann and improper Riemann integrals. The previous post can serve as an introduction (a slanted one, beware) to this one. My goal is to convince that the important and useful convergence theorems in integration theory can (and therefore, needless to say, should) be taught in a first course on Riemannian integration.

The bounded convergence theorem for the Riemann integral is also known as Arzela’s Theorem, and this post does not contain anything new. In preparing this post I used as reference the short note “A truly elementary approach to the bounded convergence theorem”, J. W. Lewin, The American Mathematical Monthly. This post can be considered as a destreamlinization of that note. I think my presentation is even more “truly elementary”, since I avoid introducing inner measure. Warning: this post will really truly be at a very elementary level. Read the rest of this entry »

### Measure theory is a must

###### [This post started out as an introduction to a post I was planning to write on convergence theorems for the Riemann integral. The introduction kind of got out hand, so I decided to post it separately. Since I have to get back to my real work, I will postpone writing that post on convergence theorems for the Riemann integral for another time, probably during the Passover break (but in any case before we need them for the course I am teaching this term, Calculus 2)].

Mathematicians love to argue about subjective opinions. One of the most tiresome and depressing subjects of debate is “What should an undergraduate math major curriculum contain?”