Invariant Subspace - Invariant Subspace Problem

Invariant Subspace Problem

The invariant subspace problem concerns the case where V is a separable Hilbert space over the complex numbers, of dimension > 1, and T is a bounded operator. The problem is to decide whether every such T has a non-trivial, closed, invariant subspace. This problem is unsolved as of 2012.

In the more general case where V is hypothesized to be a Banach space, there is an example of an operator without an invariant subspace due to Per Enflo (1976). A concrete example of an operator without an invariant subspace was produced in 1985 by Charles Read.

Read more about this topic:  Invariant Subspace

Famous quotes containing the word problem:

    “What happened at Hiroshima was not only that a scientific breakthrough ... had occurred and that a great part of the population of a city had been burned to death, but that the problem of the relation of the triumphs of modern science to the human purposes of man had been explicitly defined.”
    —Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)