Importance of Self-adjoint Operators
The class of self-adjoint operators is especially important in mathematical physics. Every self-adjoint operator is densely defined, closed and symmetric. The converse holds for bounded operators but fails in general. Self-adjointness is substantially more restricting than these three properties. The famous spectral theorem holds for self-adjoint operators. In combination with Stone's theorem on one-parameter unitary groups it shows that self-adjoint operators are precisely the infinitesimal generators of strongly continuous one-parameter unitary groups, see Self-adjoint operator#Self adjoint extensions in quantum mechanics. Such unitary groups are especially important for describing time evolution in classical and quantum mechanics.
Read more about this topic: Closed Operator
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