On the Generality of Orthogonal Projections and e-Projections in Banach Algebras ()
1. Introduction
Orthogonal projections on Hilbert spaces play important roles in many applications in mathematics, science and engineering including signal and image processing, integral equations and many other areas. In this article we introduce generalized orthogonal projections, generalized e-projections in Banach algebras and we show that they share many useful properties with their corresponding notions in C*-algebras. For more information we refer to the articles by Berkson [1], Schmoeger [2], Du et al. [3], Grob et al. [4] and Lebtahi et al. [5].
The paper is organized as follows: Section 1, contains a few elementary definitions and results from Banach algebras theory. In this section we introduce the concepts of numerical range and the spectrum and the spectral radius of an element and investigate their properties. In section 2, we introduce the generalized orthogonal projections, generalized e-projections in Banach algebras and we study some necessary and sufficient conditions for them and their spectrums.
Throughout this paper,
will denote a complex unital Banach algebras (with unit 1) and
denote the dual space of
. For
,
, define the support set at x

Then for all
define the sets

and their union, the numerical range of 

We also denote the spectrum and the spectral radius of 𝔞 by
and
respectively.
Lemma 1.1. [6]. Let
then 1)
is a compact convex subset of ℂ.
2) 
3) 
4) 
5) 
The fundamental link between the numerical range of
and the group
is as follows:

By Lemma 5.2 of [6], an element
is said to be hermitian if
or equivalently 
, equivalently
.
We denote the set of all hermitian elements of
by
. It is well-known that if
then the convex hull of the spectrum satisfies
and
. Also
is closed real subspace of
and
and if
then 
Furthermore, if
is a
-algebra, then by Example 5.3 of [6],
if and only if
.
An element
is called positive if
. We denote the set of all positive elements of
by
. By Theorem 5.14 of [6],
if and only if
and
. In the real Banach space
, the set
is a normal closed cone in which 1 is an interior point. Let
. Since
, hence each element of
has a unique representation of the form
with
. If we define a linear involution
from
to itself by
then
with the norm of
is a complex Banach space and
is a continuous linear involution on
. In the general case
is not an algebra and
is not an involution because in particular
. However, if
and for every
with
,
, then
is a complex unital
-algebra with continuous involution
and
is its set of self-adjoint elements [6].
We say that
is normal if
with
and
. Observe that
is normal if and only if
and
. An element
satisfying
is called a partial isometry.
Definition 1.2. Let
be a complex unital
-algebra, then
is called an orthogonal projection if
. Moreover
is called a Moore-Penrose invertible if there exists some
such that

In this case
is the Moore-Penrose inverse of
and usually denoted by
. If
is Moore-Penrose invertible, then
is unique.
Definition 1.3. Let
be a complex unital Banach algebra. An element
is called an orthogonal projection if
and
. Moreover
is called a Moore-Penrose invertible if there exists
such that

then the element
is called the Moore-Penrose inverse of
, and it also will be denoted by
. The MoorePenrose inverse of
is unique in the case when it exists.
If
is Moore-Penrose invertible then the equality
does not hold in general. Hence it is interesting to distinguish such elements.
Definition 1.4. An element
of a unital Banach algebra
is said to be e-projection if there exists
and
.
If
, we define the centralizer of
by

We say that
commutes if any two elements of
commute with each other. If
is commutes and
then by Theorem 11.22 of [7]
is a commutative Banach algebra (with unit 1),
and
for every
.
Lemma 1.5. [7]. Let
be a complex unital Banach algebra, let
be a normal element,
. If
is the set of all nontrivial complex homomorphisms of
. Then 1) 
2) 
3)
for all
and 
4) If
, then

2. g-Orthogonal Projections and Generalized e-Projections
Definition 2.1. An element
is called generalized orthogonal projection or simply a g-orthogonal projection if there exists a natural number
such that
Also
is said to be generalized e-projection if there exists
and 
Theorem 2.2. Suppose that
is a g-orthogonal projection. Then 1)
is normal.
2) 
3) If
for all
then
and 
Proof.
1) Since
hence we have

2) Let
, then by the Lemma 1.5 there is a
such that
, thus we have

Now if
, then
and hence
which implies that
with 
3) Since
hence

Using the Lemma 1.6 (4) we have

and

This yields

Thus we have

Since

hence

which shows that


Therefore


The second implication is obvious.
Theorem 2.3. Let
be a generalized e-projection. Then 1)
and
is an e-projection.
2) 
Proof.
1) Since
hence we have
and
.
2) This follows immediately from Theorem 2.2.
Theorem 2.4. Let
and

Then the following statements hold:
1) If
is normal, then
2) If
for all
, then
is a g-orthogonal projection.
Proof.
1) Put
Since
is normal hence
and so
Now suppose that
, then there exists some
with
.
Let
, since
thus
. This shows that
, and so
From this we have
.
2) By the Murphy’s Theorem [8],
so
is normal. Now from
we obtain

Using the Lemma 1.6(4) and applying (1) we have

Since
for all
, hence

This shows that

Since
, thus
, which implies that
.
Theorem 2.5. An element
is a g-orthogonal projection if and only if u is normal and

Proof. If u is a g-orthogonal projection then the implication follows from the Theorem 2.2. Conversely suppose that u is normal and

For every
we define the Reiesz projection of u associated with
by 
where
is a smooth closed curve which
interior to
and
exterior to
. Then by Proposition VII.4.11 of [9], u has the representation as folslows:

where
for all

and
and

and
for
and
. Now we compute

Theorem 2.6. Suppose that
and

If u has the representation

where

is a Riesz projection of u associated with
and
is a smooth closed curve which
interior to
and
exterior to
. Then u is a generalized eprojection.
Proof. Since for all
we have
hence

In the general case if
then it does not follows that
.
Example 2.7. Let
with pointwise multiplication and let
be defined by

Define the norm
on
by

Then
is a complex commutative Banach algebra with unit
If
then the following properties are shown in [6].



and
but
and each element of
is normal. Furthermore if
, then 
Lemma 2.8. Let
as in Example 2.7. Then
is a g-orthogonal projection if and only if

Proof. For all
we have

hence
if and only if
Now if

then by Theorem 2.4, we have
which implies that
. The converse implication follows immediately from Theorem 2.2.
Lemma 2.9. Let
as in Example 2.7 and
. Then the following conditions are equivalent:
1) 
2) 
3) 
4) 
Proof.
1)
2) follows from the Lemma 2.8.
2)
3) Let
Since
hence

If
then
thus
with
or
Let
Since
hence
and
It follows
therefore
This shows that
with
.
(3)
(4): Clear.
(4)
(1): follows from the spectral mapping theorem.
Theorem 2.10. Let
be g-orthogonal projections such that
. Then
is a g-orthogonal projection.
Proof. By the hypotheses

for all
hence we have

3. Acknowledgements
The author expresses his gratitude to the referee for carefully reading of the manuscript and giving useful comments.