A note on norm ideals and the operatorX→AX−XB

For operatorsA andB on a Hilbert space ℋ, let τ denote the operator on ℒ(ℋ) defined by τ(X)=AX−XB. Several equivalent conditions are given for τ to be surjective or bounded below. Analogues of these results are given for the restrictions of τ to norm ideals, and the norms of these restrictions are estimated. The author gratefully acknowledges support by a grant from the National Science Foundation.