English

Projections in the Algebra generated by an n-Potent Operator

Functional Analysis 2025-12-30 v1

Abstract

This paper investigates the projection operators that lie in the algebra generated by powers of an nn-potent operator TT on a complex Banach space, where Tn=TT^n = T. We give a complete description of all projections in the algebra comb(T)=span{T,T2,,Tn1}\operatorname{comb}(T) = \text{span}\{T, T^2, \dots, T^{n-1}\}, and prove that each such projection is uniquely determined by, and in bijection with, a subset of the nonzero spectrum of TT. As a consequence, the family of projections in comb(T)\operatorname{comb}(T) forms a Boolean algebra isomorphic to the power set of σ(T){0}\sigma(T)\setminus\{0\}. We also establish a spectral decomposition for nn-potent operators in terms of their Riesz projections and derive explicit formulas for the associated Riesz projections using resolvent expansions. We give an illustration of the theory for 55-potent operators, which highlights the algebraic and spectral structure of finite-order operators on Banach spaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.22497,
  title  = {Projections in the Algebra generated by an n-Potent Operator},
  author = {Monika and Priyadarshi Dey and Zachary Easley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.22497},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:42:26.948Z