Measurable Choice and the Invariant Subspace Problem

Authors

Edward Azoff, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Frank Gilfeather, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Date of this Version

9-1974

Comments

Published in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society Volume 80, Number 5, September 1974. Copyright © American Mathematical Society 1974. Used by permission.

Abstract

In [1], J. Dyer, A. Pedersen and P. Porcelli announced that an affirmative answer to the invariant subspace problem would imply that every reductive operator is normal. Their argument, outlined in [1], provides a striking application of direct integral theory. Moreover, this method leads to a general decomposition theory for reductive algebras which in turn illuminates the close relationship between the transitive and reductive algebra problems.
The main purpose of the present note is to provide a short proof of the technical portion of [1] : that invariant subspaces for the direct integrands of a decomposable operator can be assembled "in a measurable fashion". The general decomposition theory alluded to above will be developed elsewhere in a joint work with C. K. Fong, though we do present a summary of some of its consequences below.