The -strong
operator topology for a Hilbert space
, also called the ultrastrong operator topology, is the locally convex topology
on the algebra
of bounded operators
on
generated by the seminorms
where
ranges over all sequences in
such that
.
A net in
converges
-strongly to
precisely when
tends to 0 for every such square-summable sequence
. The
-strong operator topology is stronger than the strong operator
topology; the two topologies agree on norm-bounded subsets of
.
The -strong
topology is important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its application
to the study of von Neumann algebras. What's
more, the notion of the
-strong topology is merely one in a larger hierarchical
class of operator topologies on
which includes the
-weak topology, the
-strong* topology, etc.; this hierarchy is the focus of
considerable study in its own right.