Theorems of factorising matrix functions and the operator identity method play an essential role in this book in constructing the spectral theory (direct and inverse problems) of canonical differential systems. Includes many varied applications of the general theory.

Canonical systems occupy a central position in the spectral theory of second order differential operators. They may be used to realize arbitrary spectral data, and the classical operators such as Schrödinger, Jacobi, Dirac, and Sturm-Liouville equations can be written in this form. ‘Spectral Theory of Canonical Systems’ offers a selfcontained and detailed introduction to this theory. Techniques to construct self-adjoint realizations in suitable Hilbert spaces, a modern treatment of de Branges spaces, and direct and inverse spectral problems are discussed. Contents Basic definitions Symmetric and self-adjoint relations Spectral representation Transfer matrices and de Branges spaces Inverse spectral theory Some applications The absolutely continuous spectrum

An essentially self-contained treatment ideal for mathematicians, physicists or engineers whose research is connected with inverse problems.

This volume, which is dedicated to Heinz Langer, includes biographical material and carefully selected papers. Heinz Langer has made fundamental contributions to operator theory. In particular, he has studied the domains of operator pencils and nonlinear eigenvalue problems, the theory of indefinite inner product spaces, operator theory in Pontryagin and Krein spaces, and applications to mathematical physics. His works include studies on and applications of Schur analysis in the indefinite setting, where the factorization theorems put forward by Krein and Langer for generalized Schur functions, and by Dijksma-Langer-Luger-Shondin, play a key role. The contributions in this volume reflect Heinz Langer’s chief research interests and will appeal to a broad readership whose work involves operator theory.

The focus program on Analytic Function Spaces and their Applications took place at Fields Institute from July 1st to December 31st, 2021. Hilbert spaces of analytic functions form one of the pillars of complex analysis. These spaces have a rich structure and for more than a century have been studied by many prominent mathematicians. They also have several essential applications in other fields of mathematics and engineering, e.g., robust control engineering, signal and image processing, and theory of communication. The most important Hilbert space of analytic functions is the Hardy class H2. However, its close cousins, e.g. the Bergman space A2, the Dirichlet space D, the model subspaces Kt, and the de Branges-Rovnyak spaces H(b), have also been the center of attention in the past two decades. Studying the Hilbert spaces of analytic functions and the operators acting on them, as well as their applications in other parts of mathematics or engineering were the main subjects of this program. During the program, the world leading experts on function spaces gathered and discussed the new achievements and future venues of research on analytic function spaces, their operators, and their applications in other domains. With more than 250 hours of lectures by prominent mathematicians, a wide variety of topics were covered. More explicitly, there were mini-courses and workshops on Hardy Spaces, Dirichlet Spaces, Bergman Spaces, Model Spaces, Interpolation and Sampling, Riesz Bases, Frames and Signal Processing, Bounded Mean Oscillation, de Branges-Rovnyak Spaces, Operators on Function Spaces, Truncated Toeplitz Operators, Blaschke Products and Inner Functions, Discrete and Continuous Semigroups of Composition Operators, The Corona Problem, Non-commutative Function Theory, Drury-Arveson Space, and Convergence of Scattering Data and Non-linear Fourier Transform. At the end of each week, there was a high profile colloquium talk on the current topic. The program also contained two semester-long advanced courses on Schramm Loewner Evolution and Lattice Models and Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space of Analytic Functions. The current volume features a more detailed version of some of the talks presented during the program.

This book contains a selection of carefully refereed research papers, most of which were presented at the fourteenth International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications (IWOTA), held at Cagliari, Italy, from June 24-27, 2003. The papers, many of which have been written by leading experts in the field, concern a wide variety of topics in modern operator theory and applications, with emphasis on differential operators and numerical methods. The book will be of interest to a wide audience of pure and applied mathematicians and engineers.

This work contributes to the study of quaternionic linear operators. This study is a generalization of the complex case, but the noncommutative setting of quaternions shows several interesting new features, see e.g. the so-called S-spectrum and S-resolvent operators. In this work, we study de Branges spaces, namely the quaternionic counterparts of spaces of analytic functions (in a suitable sense) with some specific reproducing kernels, in the unit ball of quaternions or in the half space of quaternions with positive real parts. The spaces under consideration will be Hilbert or Pontryagin or Krein spaces. These spaces are closely related to operator models that are also discussed. The focus of this book is the notion of characteristic operator function of a bounded linear operator A with finite real part, and we address several questions like the study of J-contractive functions, where J is self-adjoint and unitary, and we also treat the inverse problem, namely to characterize which J-contractive functions are characteristic operator functions of an operator. In particular, we prove the counterpart of Potapov's factorization theorem in this framework. Besides other topics, we consider canonical differential equations in the setting of slice hyperholomorphic functions and we define the lossless inverse scattering problem. We also consider the inverse scattering problem associated with canonical differential equations. These equations provide a convenient unifying framework to discuss a number of questions pertaining, for example, to inverse scattering, non-linear partial differential equations and are studied in the last section of this book.