Fredholm operator

In mathematics, a Fredholm operator is an operator that arises in the Fredholm theory of integral equations. It is named in honour of Erik Ivar Fredholm.

A Fredholm operator is a bounded linear operator between two Banach spaces, with finite-dimensional kernel and cokernel, and with closed range. (The last condition is actually redundant.) Equivalently, an operator T : X → Y is Fredholm if it is invertible modulo compact operators, i.e., if there exists a bounded linear operator

such that

are compact operators on X and Y respectively.

The index of a Fredholm operator is

or in other words,

see dimension, kernel, codimension, range, and cokernel.

The set of Fredholm operators from X to Y is open in the Banach space L(X, Y) of bounded linear operators, equipped with the operator norm. More precisely, when T₀ is Fredholm from X to Y, there exists ε > 0 such that every T in L(X, Y) with ||T − T₀|| < ε is Fredholm, with the same index as that of T₀.

When T is Fredholm from X to Y and U Fredholm from Y to Z, then the composition ${\displaystyle U\circ T}$ is Fredholm from X to Z and

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