Hermitian indices and factorization of selfadjoint operators on a Kre\u{i}n space
Functional Analysis
2026-02-02 v1
Abstract
The hermitian indices of a selfadjoint operator on a Kre\u{i}n space are defined as geometric measures of positivity and negativity of the operator. A different pair of indices arises in the Bogn\'ar-Kr\'amli factorization of , which writes as a product where acts on a Kre\u{i}n space into and has zero kernel; the new indices are the positive and negative indices of . Such factorizations are far from unique. When is separable, it is known that the two notions of indices always coincide, and this has applications to index formulas in the theory of Julia operators and completion problems for operator matrices. A new proof of the equality of indices that does not require separability is given in this work.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.22366,
title = {Hermitian indices and factorization of selfadjoint operators on a Kre\u{i}n space},
author = {Michael A. Dritschel and Alejandra Maestripieri and James Rovnyak},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.22366},
year = {2026}
}