Abstract. We introduce and discuss a class of operators, to be referred to as operators close to isometries. The Bergman-type operators, 2-hyperexpansions, expansive pisometries, and certain alternating hyperexpansions are main examples of such operators. We establish a few decomposition theorems for operators close to isometries. Applications are given to the theory of p-isometries and of hyperexpansive operators.
Preliminaries. In this paper, we discuss the following fundamental problems from single-variable operator theory. If S in B(H) is a completely non-unitary left-invertible operator, under what conditions does• S * admit a complete set of eigenvectors?• S possess the wandering subspace property?• S admit a complete set of almost eigenvectors?Recall that an operator S in B(H) admits a complete set of eigenvectors if H = {f ∈ H : (S − µI)f = 0 for some µ ∈ C} and that S possesses the wandering subspace property ifA left-invertible operator S in B(H) admits a complete set of almost eigenvectors ifOne of the main results of this paper asserts that if a completely nonunitary S in B(H) is close to isometry, then S * admits a complete set of eigenvectors. Moreover, under some additional hypotheses, such an S possesses the wandering subspace property as well as a complete set of almost 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 47A16, 47B20.