A remark on the range of elementary operators

Let L(H) denote the algebra of all bounded linear operators on a separable infinite dimensional complex Hilbert space H into itself. Given A ∈ L(H), we define the elementary operator Δ _A : L(H) → L(H) by Δ _A (X) = AXA − X. In this paper we study the class of operators A ∈ L(H) which have the following property: ATA = T implies AT*A = T* for all trace class operators T ∈ C ₁(H). Such operators are termed generalized quasi-adjoints. The main result is the equivalence between this character and the fact that the ultraweak closure of the range of Δ _A is closed under taking adjoints. We give a characterization and some basic results concerning generalized quasi-adjoints operators.