Abstract

We discuss the spectral properties of the operator MC(XY) defined by MC:=(AC0B), where A(X), B(Y), C(Y,X), and X, Y are complex Banach spaces. We prove that (SASB)σ(MC)=σ(A)σ(B) for all C(Y,X). This allows us to give a partial positive answer to Question 3 of Du and Jin (1994) and generalizations of some results of Houimdi and Zguitti (2000). Some applications to the similarity problem are also given.