A dissertation submitted to the University of the Witwatersrand in ful lment of the requirements for candidacy for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2016 / Restricted Schur polynomials can be used to describe large N, non-planar limits of N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. The R-symmetry generators commute with the dilatation operator. For small deformations of 1 2-BPS operators, the matrix elements of these generators have been computed and a set of recursion relations for the matrix elements of the dilatation operator are obtained from this commutation relation. Together with the knowledge that the smallest eigenvalues of the dilatation operator (corresponding to BPS operators) vanish, these recursion relations can be used to determine the matrix elements of the dilatation operator. Studies up to now have computed the matrix elements of the su(2) generators in the displaced corners approximation. Our first novel result is the computation of the exact su(2) generators. We obtain the matrix elements for the su(3) generators in the displaced corners approximation and exactly, for the first time. This is the first step to computing exact matrix elements of the dilatation operator. / TG2016

Let $T$ be a bounded disjointness preserving linear operator from $C_0(X)$ into $C_0(Y)$, where $X$ and $Y$ are locally compact Hausdorff spaces. We give several equivalent conditions for $T$ to be compact; they are: $T$ is weakly compact; $T$ is completely continuous; $T= sum_n delta_{x_n} otimes h_n$ for a sequence of distinct points ${x_n}_n$ in $X$ and a norm null mutually disjoint sequence ${h_n}_n$ in $C_0(Y)$. The structure of a graph with countably many vertices associated to such a compact operator $T$ gives rise to a new complete description of the spectrum of $T$. In particular, we show that a nonzero complex number $la$ is an eigenvalue of $T$ if and only if $lambda^k= h_1(x_k) h_2(x_1) cdots h_k(x_{k-1})$ for some positive integer $k$. We also give a decomposition of compact disjointness preserving operators $T$ from $C_0(X,E)$ into $C_0(Y,F)$, where $X$ and $Y$ are locally compact Hausdorff spaces, $E$ and $F$ are Banach spaces. That is, $T= sum_n de_{x_n} otimes h_n$ for a sequence of distinct points ${x_n}_n$ in $X$ and a norm null mutually disjoint sequence ${h_n}_n$, where $h_n: Y o B(E,F)$ is continuous and vanishes at infinity in the uniform operator topology and $h_n(y)$ is compact for each $y$ in $Y$. For completely continuous disjointness preserving linear operators, we get a similar decomposition. More precisely, completely continuous disjointness preserving operators $T$ have a countable sum decomposition of completely continuous atoms $de_{x_n} otimes h_n$, where $h_n: Y o B(E,F)$ is continuous, vanishes at infinity in the strong operator topology and $h_n$ is uniformly completely continuous. In case of weakly compact disjointness preserving linear operators, $T$ have a countable sum decomposition of weakly compact atoms whenever the Banach space $E$ is separable. A counterexample is given whenever $E$ in nonseparable.