On Polar Decompositions with Commuting Factors in Indefinite Inner Product Space

Abstract

This thesis examins a generalisation of polar decompositions to indefinite inner product spaces. The necessary general theory is studied and some general results are given. The main part of the thesis focuses on polar decompositions with commuting factors: First, a proof for a generalisation of the link between polar decomposition with commuting factors and normal matrices is given. Then, some properties of such decompositions are studied and it is shown that the commutativity of the factors only depends on the selfadjoint part. Eventually, polar decompositions with commuting factors are studied under similarity transformations that do not alter the structure of the space. For this purpose, normal forms are decomposed and analysed.