Spectrum (functional Analysis) - Classification of Points in The Spectrum of An Operator

Classification of Points in The Spectrum of An Operator

Further information: Decomposition of spectrum (functional analysis)

A bounded operator T on a Banach space is invertible, i.e. has a bounded inverse, if and only if T is bounded below and has dense range. Accordingly, the spectrum of T can be divided into the following parts:

1. λ ∈ σ(T), if λ - T is not bounded below. In particular, this is the case, if λ - T is not injective, that is, λ is an eigenvalue. The set of eigenvalues is called the point spectrum of T and denoted by σ_p(T). Alternatively, λ - T could be one-to-one but still not be bounded below. Such λ is not an eigenvalue but still an approximate eigenvalue of T (eigenvalues themselves are also approximate eigenvalues). The set of approximate eigenvalues (which includes the point spectrum) is called the approximate point spectrum of T, denoted by σ_ap(T).
2. λ ∈ σ(T), if λ - T does not have dense range. No notation is used to describe the set of all λ, which satisfy this condition, but for a subset: If λ - T does not have dense range but is injective, λ is said to be in the residual spectrum of T, denoted by σ_r(T) .

Note that the approximate point spectrum and residual spectrum are not necessarily disjoint (however, the point spectrum and the residual spectrum are).

The following subsections provide more details on the three parts of σ(T) sketched above.