A note on common complements

Abstract

We discuss the structure of the set $\Delta$ consisting of pairs of closed subspaces that have a common complement in a Hilbert space previously studied by Lauzon and Treil (J. Funct. Anal. 212: 500--512, 2004). We prove that $\Delta$ is the base space of a real analytic fiber bundle constructed in terms of geometric objects associated to the Grassmann manifold. As a consequence we determine the homotopy type of $\Delta$.