Invertibility of the square root of an operator

functional-analysisoperator-theory

Let $\mathcal{B}(F)$ the algebra of all bounded linear operators on a complex Hilbert space $F$. Let $M\in \mathcal{B}(F)^+$ (i.e. $\langle Mx\;, \;x\rangle\geq 0$ for all $x\in F$).

  • The square root of $M$ is defined to be the unique operator $N$ such that
    $$N^2=M.$$

  • In this case we write $N=M^{1/2}$

If $M$ is an invertible operators, is $M^{1/2}$ invertible?

Best Answer

Note that $M$ is invertible if and only if there is $\epsilon>0$ such that $$\sigma(M)\subset [\epsilon, \infty).$$ Thus $\sigma(M^{1/2})\subset [\epsilon^{1/2},\infty)$ and $M^{1/2}$ is invertible.