In this paper we characterize EP operators through the existence of different types of factorizations. Our results extend to EP operators existing characterizations for EP matrices and give new characterizations both for EP matrices and EP operators.2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 47A05, 15A09; Secondary 47B.

Let X be a real Banach space. We prove that the existence of an injective, positive, symmetric and not strictly singular operator from X into its dual implies that either X admits an equivalent Hilbertian norm or it contains a nontrivially complemented subspace which is isomorphic to a Hilbert space. We also treat the non-symmetric case

We prove a linear and a nonlinear generalization of the Lax-Milgram theorem. In particular, we give sufficient conditions for a real-valued function defined on the product of a reflexive Banach space and a normed space to represent all bounded linear functionals of the latter. We also give two applications to singular differential equations.

Abstract. We study the problem of the existence of a common algebraic complement for a pair of closed subspaces of a Banach space. We prove the following two characterizations: (1) The pairs of subspaces of a Banach space with a common complement coincide with those pairs which are isomorphic to a pair of graphs of bounded linear operators between two other Banach spaces. (2) The pairs of subspaces of a Banach space X with a common complement coincide with those pairs for which there exists an involution S on X exchanging the two subspaces, such that I + S is bounded from below on their union. Moreover, we show that, in a separable Hilbert space, the only pairs of subspaces with a common complement are those which are either equivalently positioned or not completely asymptotic to one another. We also obtain characterizations for the existence of a common complement for subspaces with closed sum.1. Introduction. In their recent paper [17] Lauzon and Treil raised the following problem: Given two closed subspaces M and N of a Banach space X, what conditions are necessary and sufficient for M and N to have a common algebraic complement? Recall that we say that a closed subspace K is an algebraic complement (from now on just complement) of M and write M ⊕ K = X

We show that linear operators from a Banach space into itself which satisfy some relaxed strong accretivity conditions are invertible. Moreover, we characterise a particular class of such operators in the Hilbert space case. By doing so we manage to answer a problem posed by B. Ricceri, concerning a linear second order partial differential operator.