Similarity between two projections

Abstract

Given two orthogonal projections P and Q, we are interested in all unitary operators U such that UP=QU and UQ=PU. Such unitaries U have previously been constructed by Wang, Du, and Dou and also by one of the authors. One purpose of this note is to compare these constructions. Very recently, Dou, Shi, Cui, and Du described all unitaries U with the required property. Their proof is via the two projections theorem by Halmos. We here give a proof based on the supersymmetric approach by Avron, Seiler, and one of the authors.