Embeddings, operator ranges, and Dirac operators

Motivated by energy space representation of Dirac operators, in the sense of K. Friedrichs, we recently introduced the notion of closely embedded Kreǐn spaces. These spaces are associated to unbounded selfadjoint operators that play the role of kernel operators, in the sense of L. Schwartz, and they are special representations of induced Kreǐn spaces. In this article we present a canonical representation of closely embedded Kreǐn spaces in terms of a generalization of the notion of operator range and obtain a characterization of uniqueness. When applied to Dirac operators, the results differ according to a mass or a massless particle in a dramatic way: in the case of a particle with a nontrivial mass we obtain a dual of a Sobolev type space and we have uniqueness, while in the case of a massless particle we obtain a dual of a homogenous Sobolev type space and we lose uniqueness. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.