What does the spectral theorem say

Pizza Seminar

Speaker: Farzad Fathizadeh (Western)

What does the spectral theorem say?

Time: 17:00 PM, Tuesday January 19, 2010; Room: MC 107

The Spectral Theorem, and the closely related Spectral Multiplicity Theory is a gem of modern mathematics. It is about the structure, and complete classification, up to unitary equivalence, of normal operators on a Hilbert space. This theorem is the generalization of the theorem in linear algebra which says that every normal, in particular selfadjoint, matrix is unitarily equivalent to a diagonal matrix; or, in simple terms, is diagonalizable in an orthonormal basis. The extension of this result to infinite dimensions is by no means obvious and involves many new subtle phenomena that have no analogue in finite dimensions. The final result has many applications to pure and applied mathematics, mathematical physics, and quantum mechanics. In this talk, a proof of the spectral theorem for Hermitian operators on a Hilbert space will be outlined and some applications will be discussed. This talk should be accessible to undergraduate students.