Spectra of typical Hilbert space operators

Abstract

Let $\mathcal{B}(H)$ be the bounded, linear operators on a separable Hilbert space equipped with the norm topology. A property is called typical if the set of operators fulfilling the property is co-meager. We show that having non-empty continuous spectrum is a typical property and that the operators with non-empty point spectrum form a nowhere dense set. In addition we show that the set of operators with empty point spectrum is dense and characterize the closure of the set of those operators for which the spectrum and the point spectrum coincide.

17 pages, minor changes