In functional analysis, a branch of mathematics, a strictly singular operator is a bounded linear operator L from a Banach space X to another Banach space Y, such that it is not an isomorphism, and fails to be an isomorphism on any infinitely dimensional subspace of X. Any compact operator is strictly singular, but not vice-versa.[1][2]
Every bounded linear map , for , , is strictly singular. Here, and are sequence spaces. Similarly, every bounded linear map and , for , is strictly singular. Here is the Banach space of sequences converging to zero. This is a corollary of Pitt's theorem, which states that such T, for q < p, are compact.