Much of the importance of mathematics lies in its ability to provide theories which are useful in widely different fields of endeavour. A good example is the large and amorphous body of knowledge known as the theory of linear operators or operator theory, which came to life about a century ago as a theory to encompass properties common to matrix, differential, and integral operators. Thus, it is a primary purpose of operator theory to provide a coherent body of knowledge which can explain phenomena common to the enormous variety of problems in which such linear operators play a part. The theory is a vital part of functional analysis, whose methods and techniques are one of the major advances of twentieth century mathematics and now play a pervasive role in the modeling of phenomena in probability, imaging, signal processing, systems theory, etc, as well as in the more traditional areas of theoretical physics and mechanics. This book is based on lectures presented at a meeting on operator theory and its applications held at the Fields Institute in 1994.

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 volume is dedicated to Rien Kaashoek on the occasion of his 80th birthday and celebrates his many contributions to the field of operator theory during more than fifty years. In the first part of the volume, biographical information and personal accounts on the life of Rien Kaashoek are presented. Eighteen research papers by friends and colleagues of Rien Kaashoek are included in the second part. Contributions by J. Agler, Z.A. Lykova, N.J. Young, J.A. Ball, G.J. Groenewald, S. ter Horst, H. Bart, T. Ehrhardt, B. Silbermann, J.M. Bogoya, S.M. Grudsky, I.S. Malysheva, A. Böttcher, E. Wegert, Z. Zhou, Y. Eidelman, I. Haimovici, A.E. Frazho, A.C.M. Ran, B. Fritzsche, B. Kirstein, C.Madler, J. J. Jaftha, D.B. Janse van Rensburg, P. Junghanns, R. Kaiser, J. Nemcova, M. Petreczky, J.H. van Schuppen, L. Plevnik, P. Semrl, A. Sakhnovich, F.-O. Speck, S. Sremac, H.J. Woerdeman, H. Wolkowicz and N. Vasilevski.

This volume is dedicated to Tsuyoshi Ando, a foremost expert in operator theory, matrix theory, complex analysis, and their applications, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The book opens with his biography and list of publications. It contains a selection of papers covering a broad spectrum of topics ranging from abstract operator theory to various concrete problems and applications. The majority of the papers deal with topics in modern operator theory and its applications. This volume also contains papers on interpolation and completion problems, factorization problems and problems connected with complex analysis. The book will appeal to a wide audience of pure and applied mathematicians.

This volume is dedicated to Heinz Langer, a leading expert in spectral analysis and its applications, in particular to operators in spaces with an indefinite metric, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The book begins with his biography and list of publications. It contains a selection of research papers, most of which are devoted to spectral analysis of operators or operator pencils with applications to ordinary and partial differential equations. Other papers deal with time-varying systems, interpolation and factorization problems, and topics from mathematical physics. About half of the papers contain further developments in the theory of operators in spaces with an indefinite metric and treat new applications. The book is of interest to a wide audience of pure and applied mathematicians.

This book is dedicated to the memory of Israel Gohberg (1928–2009) – one of the great mathematicians of our time – who inspired innumerable fellow mathematicians and directed many students. The volume reflects the wide spectrum of Gohberg’s mathematical interests. It consists of more than 25 invited and peer-reviewed original research papers written by his former students, co-authors and friends. Included are contributions to single and multivariable operator theory, commutative and non-commutative Banach algebra theory, the theory of matrix polynomials and analytic vector-valued functions, several variable complex function theory, and the theory of structured matrices and operators. Also treated are canonical differential systems, interpolation, completion and extension problems, numerical linear algebra and mathematical systems theory.

On November 12-14, 1997 a workshop was held at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on the occasion of the sixtieth birthday ofM. A. Kaashoek. The present volume contains the proceedings of this workshop. The workshop was attended by 44 participants from all over the world: partici pants came from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine and the USA. The atmosphere at the workshop was very warm and friendly. There where 21 plenary lectures, and each lecture was followed by a lively discussion. The workshop was supported by: the Vakgroep Wiskunde of the Vrije Univer siteit, the department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the Vrije Univer siteit, the Stichting VU Computer Science & Mathematics Research Centre, the Thomas Stieltjes Institute for Mathematics, and the department of Economics of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The organizers would like to take this opportunity to express their gratitude for the support. Without it the workshop would not have been so successful as it was. Table of Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Photograph of M. A. Kaashoek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Curriculum Vitae of M. A. Kaashoek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv List of Publications of M. A. Kaashoek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix l. Gohberg Opening Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi H. Bart, A. C. M. Ran and H. I. Woerdeman Personal Reminiscences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxv V. Adamyan and R. Mennicken On the Separation of Certain Spectral Components of Selfadjoint Operator Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. Conditions for the Separation of Spectral Components . . . . . . . 4 3. Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This book features a collection of papers by plenary, semi-plenary and invited contributors at IWOTA2021, held at Chapman University in hybrid format in August 2021. The topics span areas of current research in operator theory, mathematical physics, and complex analysis.

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.

This volume brings readers up to date on different aspects of operator theory and its applications, including mathematical physics, hydrodynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, quantum mechanics, astrophysics as well as the theory of networks and systems. Of practical use to a wide readership in pure and applied mathematics, physics and engineering sciences.