Spectral Fredholm Theory in Von Neumann Algebras

Abstract: In this paper, we extend Fredholm theory in von Neumann algebras established by Breuer in [5] and [6] to spectral Fredholm theory. We consider 2 by 2 upper triangular operator matrices with coefficients in a von Neumann algebra and give the relationship between the generalized essential spectra in the sense of Breuer of such matrices and of their diagonal entries. Next, we prove that if a generalized Fredholm operator in the sense of Breuer has 0 as an isolated point of its spectrum, then the corresponding spectral projection is finite. Finally, we define the generalized B-Fredholm operator in a von Neumann algebra as a generalization in the sense of Breuer of the classical B-Fredholm operators on Hilbert and Banach spaces. We provide sufficient conditions under which a sum of a generalized B-Fredholm operator and a finite operator in a von Neumann algebra is again a generalized B-Fredholm operator.