For a bounded operator on a complex Banach space, partition a disconnected spectrum into two nonempty compact pieces. The holomorphic function equal to one near the first piece and zero near the second defines a Riesz projection. The holomorphic spectral mapping theorem makes it neither zero nor identity. Its closed range is a proper nonzero invariant vector subspace. This need not be an orthogonal projection, and the argument does not require a normal operator.
Define the holomorphic function on the disconnected open set to be one on and zero on . Since , its holomorphic functional calculus value is an idempotent. The spectral mapping theorem and the nonempty spectral intersection with show ; thus . These are the Riesz projection values selecting the indicated spectral component.
Part (b) gives . If avoided , spectral mapping would give . A nonzero idempotent always has in its spectrum: if were invertible, would force . Thus avoiding forces . That is impossible eventually, since and . Therefore eventually. This is persistence of a separated spectral component, not a claim that arbitrary individual spectral points vary continuously.
Give the compact-open topology, that is, uniform convergence on compact subsets. Put . Choose a finite oriented contour in with winding number one on and zero outside ; boundaries of a finite union of sufficiently small rectangles around the compact spectrum provide such a contour. Define the holomorphic functional calculus by
The integral is a Bochner integral along the piecewise smooth contour. It is independent of the admissible contour by the Cauchy integral theorem, since the resolvent is holomorphic off the spectrum. In particular, restricting to a smaller open spectral neighborhood leaves its value unchanged.
Linearity is immediate, and
proves continuity for the compact-open topology. For the constant and coordinate functions, move the corresponding resolvent integrals to a large circle. The norm-convergent expansion there gives and .
To check multiplication, take two nested admissible contours, with on the outer one and on the inner one. The resolvent identity gives
In the double integral for , the term with integrates in to by the Cauchy integral formula. The term with integrates in to zero, because lies outside the inner region. Thus . Nested regions can be chosen with closures inside , so the argument also handles disconnected and contours with several boundary components.
For uniqueness, use the following form of the Runge theorem: rational functions whose poles lie outside an open set are dense in for uniform convergence on compact subsets; polynomials are included, with a pole at infinity allowed. This follows by a Runge exhaustion of ; no connectedness of is required. Any unital algebra homomorphism sending to must send to for . Consequently it agrees with the constructed map on every such rational function. Continuity and density give uniqueness. This is continuity and uniqueness of holomorphic functional calculus.
For the holomorphic spectral mapping theorem, first suppose . The reciprocal is holomorphic on some smaller open neighborhood of , even if it is not holomorphic on all of . Restriction consistency and multiplicativity on show that is an inverse of . Thus .
Conversely, if , then
is holomorphic on , with the singularity at removed. Hence
In a commutative algebra, an invertible product has invertible factors. The displayed product cannot be invertible because is not. Therefore
For the operator conclusion, work over complex scalars and let be a partition into disjoint nonempty compact sets. To apply the preceding commutative-algebra result precisely, take the closed unital subalgebra of generated by and all its resolvents , . The generators commute, so this is a resolvent-generated commutative algebra. Its spectrum of is exactly the operator spectrum: every resolvent outside the latter was included, and an inverse inside the subalgebra would also be an inverse in .
Choose disjoint open neighborhoods of , and let equal one on and zero on . The corresponding Riesz projection satisfies
The last spectrum is computed in the chosen commutative algebra and already ensures . Its range is closed, nonzero and proper. The commutation identity makes it invariant under . This proves that a disconnected spectrum yields a nontrivial invariant subspace. Using all resolvents avoids inadvertently replacing the operator spectrum by the possibly larger spectrum in a polynomial-generated subalgebra.
Factor the perturbed operator on as
Since
the Neumann series makes invertible. Therefore and
The geometric-series bound gives
Now choose a bounded open neighborhood of the isolated spectral component such that
and meets no other component of the spectrum. Compactness of gives
For all sufficiently large , . Applying the first part to shows uniformly that .
The corresponding Riesz projections are
The resolvent identity and the uniform Neumann bound imply . The projection is nonzero because contains the nonempty spectral component . Projections at distance less than one have isomorphic ranges, so for large . Therefore has spectrum inside , and any such point satisfies . Thus
for every sufficiently large .