On the spectrum of frequently hypercyclic operators

Abstract

A bounded linear operator $T$ on a Banach space $X$ is called frequently hypercyclic if there exists $x\in X$ such that the lower density of the set $\{n\in \mathbb{N}:T^{n}x\in U\}$ is positive for any non-empty open subset $U$ of $X$. Bayart and Grivaux have raised a question whether there is a frequently hypercyclic operator on any separable infinite dimensional Banach space. We prove that the spectrum of a frequently hypercyclic operator has no isolated points. It follows that there are no frequently hypercyclic operators on all complex and on some real hereditarily indecomposable Banach spaces, which provides a negative answer to the above question.