English

The Friedrichs angle and alternating projections in Hilbert $C^{*}$-modules

Operator Algebras 2023-02-13 v2 Functional Analysis

Abstract

Let BB be a CC^{*}-algebra, XX a Hilbert CC^{*}-module over BB and M,NXM,N\subset X a pair of complemented submodules. We prove the CC^{*}-module version of von Neumann's alternating projections theorem: the sequence (PNPM)n(P_{N}P_{M})^{n} is Cauchy in the *-strong module topology if and only if MNM\cap N is the complement of M+N\overline{M^{\perp}+N^{\perp}}. In this case, the *-strong limit of (PMPN)n(P_{M}P_{N})^{n} is the orthogonal projection onto MNM\cap N. We use this result and the local-global principle to show that the cosine of the Friedrichs angle c(M,N)c(M,N) between any pair of complemented submodules M,NXM,N\subset X is well-defined and that c(M,N)<1c(M,N)<1 if and only if MNM\cap N is complemented and M+NM+N is closed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2112.03822,
  title  = {The Friedrichs angle and alternating projections in Hilbert $C^{*}$-modules},
  author = {Bram Mesland and Adam Rennie},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.03822},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

19 pages. We added Lemma 3.10, sharpened Proposition 3.12, and discuss vector bundles in Remark 3.14

R2 v1 2026-06-24T08:07:50.670Z