This chapter is concerned with closable and closed operators in Hilbert spaces, especially with the special classes of symmetric, J-symmetric, accretive and sectorial operators. The Stone–von Neumann theory of extensions of symmetric operators is treated as a special case of results for compatible adjoint pairs of closed operators. Also discussed in detail is the stability of closedness and self-adjointness under perturbations. The abstract results are applied to operators defined by second-order differential expressions, and Sims’ generalization of the Weyl limit-point, limit-circle characterization for symmetric expressions to J-symmetric expressions is proved.
