Spectral Theorem - Compact Self-adjoint Operators

Compact Self-adjoint Operators

In Hilbert spaces in general, the statement of the spectral theorem for compact self-adjoint operators is virtually the same as in the finite-dimensional case.

Theorem. Suppose A is a compact self-adjoint operator on a Hilbert space V. There is an orthonormal basis of V consisting of eigenvectors of A. Each eigenvalue is real.

As for Hermitian matrices, the key point is to prove the existence of at least one nonzero eigenvector. To prove this, we cannot rely on determinants to show existence of eigenvalues, but instead one can use a maximization argument analogous to the variational characterization of eigenvalues. The above spectral theorem holds for real or complex Hilbert spaces.

If the compactness assumption is removed, it is not true that every self adjoint operator has eigenvectors.