We characterize those linear projections represented as a convex combination of two surjective isometries on standard Banach spaces of continuous functions with values in a strictly convex Banach space.

Let $H$ be a complex Hilbert space, and $\HH$ be the real linear space of bounded selfadjoint operators on $H$. We study linear maps $\phi\colon \HH \to \HH$ leaving invariant various properties such as invertibility, positive definiteness, numerical range, {\it etc}. The maps $\phi$ are not assumed {\it a priori\/} continuous. It is shown that under an appropriate surjective or injective assumption $\phi$ has the form $X \mapsto \xi TXT^*$ or $X \mapsto \xi TX^tT^*$, for a suitable invertible or unitary $T$ and $\xi\in\{1, -1\}$, where $X^t$ stands for the transpose of $X$ relative to some orthonormal basis. Examples are given to show that the surjective or injective assumption cannot be relaxed. The results are extended to complex linear maps on the algebra of bounded linear operators on $H$. Similar results are proved for the (real) linear space of (selfadjoint) operators of the form $\alpha I+K$, where $\alpha$ is a scalar and $K$ is compact.

Let $A_i$, $B_i$ and $X_i$ $(i=1, 2, \dots, n)$ be operators on a separable Hilbert space. It is shown that if $f$ and $g$ are nonnegative continuous functions on $[0,\infty)$ which satisfy the relation $f(t)g(t) =t$ for all $t$ in $[0,\infty)$, then $$ \Biglvert \,\Bigl|\sum^n_{i=1} A^*_i X_i B_i \Bigr|^r \,\Bigrvert^2 \leq \Biglvert \Bigl( \sum^n_{i=1} A^*_i f (|X^*_i|)^2 A_i \Bigr)^r \Bigrvert \, \Biglvert \Bigl( \sum^n_{i=1} B^*_i g (|X_i|)^2 B_i \Bigr)^r \Bigrvert $$ for every $r>0$ and for every unitarily invariant norm. This result improves some known Cauchy-Schwarz type inequalities. Norm inequalities related to the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality and the classical Heinz inequalities are also obtained.

In a paper [1], published in 1990, in a (somewhat inaccessible) conference proceedings, the authors had shown that for the unitary operators on a separable Hilbert space, endowed with the strong operator topology, those with singular, continuous, simple spectrum, with full support, form a dense $G_\delta$. A similar theorem for bounded self-adjoint operators with a given norm bound (omitting simplicity) was recently given by Barry Simon [2], [3], with a totally different proof. In this note we show that a slight modification of our argument, combined with the Cayley transform, gives a proof of Simon's result, with simplicity of the spectrum added.