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An adjoint eigenfunction is a nonzero eigenfunction of the adjoint operator on its adjoint domain. For an inner product conjugate-linear in its first argument, $L^{\ast }g=\overline{\lambda }g$ implies $⟨g,(L-\lambda )f⟩=0$ for every $f$ in the domain of $L$. Consequently a necessary solvability condition for $(L-\lambda )f=h$ is $⟨g,h⟩=0$. If $L-\lambda I$ is a Fredholm operator, orthogonality to every element of its adjoint kernel is also sufficient. Boundary conditions and weights in a coupled system enter the adjoint domain and must be derived by integration by parts; copying the original eigenfunction without checking them can give a wrong projection.

With complex inner products linear in the first argument, the adjoint operator of the source-to-far-field operator at fixed frequency isIt is a normalized Herglotz wave function. Complex conjugation reverses the phase sign, while retaining the real factor $-1/(4\pi )$.

For closed subspaces of a Hilbert space, set $T=P_{V^{\perp }}{|}_W$. The two positive cosines bound $T$ and its adjoint operator $P_W{|}_{V^{\perp }}$ below. The first bound gives a closed range and injectivity; the second makes the range dense by image-kernel orthogonality for an adjoint. Thus $T$ is a bounded bijection, and $w=T^{-1}{P}_{V^{\perp }}f$ yields the unique direct sum decomposition $f=w+v$. In equal finite dimensions, a lower bound on $T$ alone suffices by the rank-nullity theorem.

A linear operator $T$ on a Hilbert space $H$ is densely defined when its operator domain is a dense subset of $H$. Density makes the adjoint operator unique wherever its defining inner-product identity has a solution.

With zero forward differences at the grid boundary, discrete isotropic total variation is the sum of the Euclidean lengths of the two-component forward gradients. Its dual constraint is the product of unit Euclidean balls, and minimizing $\frac{1}{2}\Vert g-D^{\ast }p{\Vert }_2^2$ over that product yields $u_{\ast }=g-D^{\ast }{p}_{\ast }$. The exact difference adjoint operator is essential. A dual proximal gradient method projects $p+\tau D(g-D^{\ast }p)$ pointwise onto unit balls; $0<\tau \le 1/8$ is safe on an unscaled square grid.

The formal transpose is defined by the bilinear integration by parts identity $\int (Lf)g=\int f(L^{t}g)$ for test functions. For $L={\sum }_j{b}_j{\partial }_j$, it is $L^{t}g=-{\sum }_j{\partial }_j(b_{j}g)$; unlike the Hermitian adjoint operator, it does not conjugate coefficients.

For a linear map $T:V\to W$ between finite-dimensional inner product spaces,The first equality follows directly from the defining identity for the adjoint operator; the second follows by taking orthogonal complements. In an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, the second equality generally requires closure of the image.

For a constant reference density, fluid perturbation kinetic energy is proportional to $\Vert u{\Vert }^2/2$ under the displayed $L^2$ inner product. An adjoint operator for perturbation evolution must be defined relative to this inner product, including boundary conditions and the projection onto incompressible flow.

On the Hilbert space ${\ell }^2(\mathbb{N})$, the left shift deletes the first coordinate. It is the adjoint operator of the unilateral shift operator $S$. The identities $LS=I$ and $SLf=f-f_1{e}_1$ show that it is also the Moore–Penrose inverse of an operator for $S$; both maps have operator norm one.

On a compact oriented Riemannian manifold without boundary, the codifferential is the $L^2$ adjoint operator of the exterior derivative. ConsequentlyEvery eigenvalue of the Hodge Laplacian is therefore nonnegative.

For bounded linear operators $K:U\to V$ and $B:U\to W$ between real Hilbert spaces, $\alpha >0$ and $\Vert Bu\Vert \ge \beta \Vert u\Vert$ with $\beta >0$, the unique minimizer of $\Vert Ku-f{\Vert }^2/2+\alpha \Vert Bu{\Vert }^2/2$ satisfies $(K^{\ast }K+\alpha B^{\ast }B)u_{\alpha }=K^{\ast }f$. Differentiate the objective in every direction and use the adjoint operator to obtain this equation. The coercive quadratic penalty makes its left-hand operator boundedly invertible. Setting $B=I$ gives the Tikhonov normal equation; omitting the penalty instead gives the normal equation for a linear inverse problem.

For bounded operators between Hilbert spaces, write the norm as the supremum of $|⟨Ax,y⟩|$ over unit vectors $x,y$. Moving the operator to the other slot proves equality of its norm with that of its adjoint operator. Applied to the exponential matrix, this makes the primal and dual analytic large sieve inequalities equivalent.

Work over a complex Hilbert space; for a real space one first complexifies to discuss a complex spectrum. A bounded linear operator $L$ is self-adjoint when $L=L^{\ast }$, where the adjoint operator is defined byEquivalently, $⟨Lh,k⟩=⟨h,Lk⟩$ for every pair of vectors.

The spectrum of a bounded operator isIts complement is the resolvent set. On a Banach space, a bounded bijective operator has a bounded inverse by the bounded inverse theorem, so failure of invertibility is equivalent to failure of bijectivity. An eigenvalue is one possible spectral point, but an injective operator that is not onto can also contribute to the spectrum.

If $|z|>\Vert L\Vert$, the Neumann series givesThe series converges in operator norm because $\Vert L/z\Vert <1$. HenceThe same argument applied to small perturbations of an invertible operator shows that the resolvent set is open and the spectrum is closed.

Suppose $L=L^{\ast }$ and $\mathrm{Im}z\ne 0$. The quadratic form $⟨Lh,h⟩$ is real, so the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality impliesThus $L-zI$ is bounded below by $|\mathrm{Im}z|$: it is injective and has closed range. Its adjoint operator $L-\bar{z}I$ has the same lower bound and trivial kernel. Sincethe range is dense as well as closed, and therefore is all of $H$. The inverse has norm at most $|\mathrm{Im}z{|}^{-1}$. For a bounded self-adjoint operator, $\Sigma (L)\subset \mathbb{R}$. The closed-range and adjoint steps are essential: merely excluding nonreal eigenvalues would not exclude all nonreal spectral points.