On the positive commutator in the radical

Abstract

In this paper we prove that a positive commutator between a positive compact operator $A$ and a positive operator $B$ is in the radical of the Banach algebra generated by $A$ and $B$. Furthermore, on every at least three-dimensional Banach lattice we construct finite rank operators $A$ and $B$ satisfying $AB\ge BA\ge 0$ such that the commutator $AB-BA$ is not contained in the radical of the Banach algebra generated by $A$ and $B$. These two results now completely answer to two open questions published in [4]. We also obtain relevant results in the case of the Volterra and the Donoghue operator.