A generalization of parallel addition

Summary Parallel addition of positive operators, a concept introduced by W. N. Anderson and R. J. Duffin [1] in connection with network theory, has already been studied by several authors. We specifically mention W. N. Anderson and G. E. Trapp [2] and [3], T. Ando [4], K. Nishio [12], E. L. Pekarev and J. L. Smul'jan [13], as well as the article [10] by the present authors.The purpose of this note is to study a generalization of parallel addition. In particular, it will be shown (Theorem 3.2) that the corresponding quasi-units, a concept introduced in [10], are again the extreme points of the convex sets, formed by the positive operators less than or equal to some fixed operator.