Inner products on the Hilbert space $S_2$ of Hilbert--Schmidt operators

This work presents a rigorous characterization of inner products on the Hilbert space $S_2$ of Hilbert--Schmidt operators. We first deal with a general setting of continuous sesquilinear forms on a Hilbert space $\mathcal H$, and provide a characterization of all inner products by means of positive operators in $\mathcal {B(H)}$. Next, we establish necessary and sufficient conditions for an operator in $\mathcal B(S_2)$ to be positive. Identifying an inner product with a positive operator enables us to rigorously describe inner products on $S_2$.