Fredholm Determinant - Definition

Definition

Let H be a Hilbert space and G the set of bounded invertible operators on H of the form I + T, where T is a trace-class operator. G is a group because

It has a natural metric given by d(X, Y) = ||X - Y||1, where || ยท ||1 is the trace-class norm.

If H is a Hilbert space with inner product, then so too is the kth exterior power with inner product

In particular

gives an orthonormal basis of if (ei) is an orthonormal basis of H. If A is a bounded operator on H, then A functorially defines a bounded operator on by

If A is trace-class, then (A) is also trace-class with

This shows that the definition of the Fredholm determinant given by

makes sense.

Read more about this topic:  Fredholm Determinant

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