DIAGONALIZATION MODULO NORM IDEALS AND HAUSDORFF DIMENSIONALITY

Abstract

Kuroda's version of the Weyl-von Neumann theorem asserts that, given any norm ideal [Formula: see text] not contained in the trace class [Formula: see text], every self-adjoint operator A admits the decomposition A=D+K, where D is a self-adjoint diagonal operator and [Formula: see text]. We extend this theorem to the setting of multiplication operators on compact metric spaces (X, d). We show that if μ is a regular Borel measure on X which has a σ-finite one-dimensional Hausdorff measure, then the family {Mf:f∈ Lip (X)} of multiplication operators on T2(X, μ) can be simultaneously diagonalized modulo any [Formula: see text]. Because the condition [Formula: see text] in general cannot be dropped (Kato-Rosenblum theorem), this establishes a special relation between [Formula: see text] and the one-dimensional Hausdorff measure. The main result of the paper is that such a relation breaks down in Hausdorff dimensions p>1.