A comprehensive graduate textbook that introduces functional analysis with an emphasis on the theory of linear operators and its application to differential equations, integral equations, infinite systems of linear equations, approximation theory, and numerical analysis. As a textbook designed for senior undergraduate and graduate students, it begins with the geometry of Hilbert spaces and proceeds to the theory of linear operators on these spaces including Banach spaces. Presented as a natural continuation of linear algebra, the book provides a firm foundation in operator theory which is an essential part of mathematical training for students of mathematics, engineering, and other technical sciences.

These two volumes constitute texts for graduate courses in linear operator theory. The reader is assumed to have a knowledge of both complex analysis and the first elements of operator theory. The texts are intended to concisely present a variety of classes of linear operators, each with its own character, theory, techniques and tools. For each of the classes, various differential and integral operators motivate or illustrate the main results. Although each class is treated seperately and the first impression may be that of many different theories, interconnections appear frequently and unexpectedly. The result is a beautiful, unified and powerful theory. The classes we have chosen are representatives of the principal important classes of operators, and we believe that these illustrate the richness of operator theory, both in its theoretical developments and in its applicants. Because we wanted the books to be of reasonable size, we were selective in the classes we chose and restricted our attention to the main features of the corresponding theories. However, these theories have been updated and enhanced by new developments, many of which appear here for the first time in an operator-theory text. In the selection of the material the taste and interest of the authors played an important role.

After the book "Basic Operator Theory" by Gohberg-Goldberg was pub lished, we, that is the present authors, intended to continue with another book which would show the readers the large variety of classes of operators and the important role they play in applications. The book was planned to be of modest size, but due to the profusion of results in this area of analysis, the number of topics grew larger than ex pected. Consequently, we decided to divide the material into two volumes - the first volume being presented now. During the past years, courses and seminars were given at our respective in stitutions based on parts of the texts. These were well received by the audience and enabled us to make appropriate choices for the topics and presentation for the two vol umes. We would like to thank G.J. Groenewald, A.B. Kuijper and A.C.M. Ran of the Vrije Universiteit at Amsterdam, who provided us with lists of remarks and corrections. We are now aware that the Basic Operator Theory book should be revised so that it may suitably fit in with our present volumes. This revision is planned to be the last step of an induction and not the first.

These two volumes constitute texts for graduate courses in linear operator theory. The reader is assumed to have a knowledge of both complex analysis and the first elements of operator theory. The texts are intended to concisely present a variety of classes of linear operators, each with its own character, theory, techniques and tools. For each of the classes, various differential and integral operators motivate or illustrate the main results. Although each class is treated seperately and the first impression may be that of many different theories, interconnections appear frequently and unexpectedly. The result is a beautiful, unified and powerful theory. The classes we have chosen are representatives of the principal important classes of operators, and we believe that these illustrate the richness of operator theory, both in its theoretical developments and in its applicants. Because we wanted the books to be of reasonable size, we were selective in the classes we chose and restricted our attention to the main features of the corresponding theories. However, these theories have been updated and enhanced by new developments, many of which appear here for the first time in an operator-theory text. In the selection of the material the taste and interest of the authors played an important role.

This book is an introduction to the subject and is devoted to standard material on linear functional analysis, and presents some ergodic theorems for classes of operators containing the quasi-compact operators. It discusses various classes of operators connected with the numerical range.

The Operator Theory conferences, organized by the Department of Mathematics of INCREST and the University of Timi~oara, are conceived as a means to promote cooperation and exchange of information between specialists in all areas of operator theory. This volume consists of a careful selec£ion of papers contributed by the participants of the 1986 Conference. They reflect most of the topics dealt with by the modern operator theory, including recent advances in dual operator algebras and the fnvariant subspace problem, operators in indefinite metric spaces, hyponormal, quasi triangular and decomposable operators, various problems in C*- and W*-algebras and so on. The research contracts of the Department of Mathematics of INCREST with the National Council for Science and Technology of Romania provided the means for developing the research activity in mathematics; they represent the generous framework of these meetings, too. It is our pleasure to acknowledge the financial support of UNESCO which also contributed to the success of this meeting. We are indebted to Professor Israel Gohberg for including these Proceedings in the OT Series and for valuable advice in the editing process. Birkhiiuser Verlag was very cooperative in publishing this volume. Camelia Minculescu, Iren Nemethi and Rodica Stoenescu dealt with the dif ficult task of typing the whOle manuscript using a Rank Xerox 860 word processor; we thank them for the excellent job they did.

Most books on linear operators are not easy to follow for students and researchers without an extensive background in mathematics. Self-contained and using only matrix theory, Invitation to Linear Operators: From Matricies to Bounded Linear Operators on a Hilbert Space explains in easy-to-follow steps a variety of interesting recent results on linear operators on a Hilbert space. The author first states the important properties of a Hilbert space, then sets out the fundamental properties of bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space. The final section presents some of the more recent developments in bounded linear operators.