Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Commutator theory has its origins in constructive quantum field theory. It was initially developed by Glirnm and Jaffe [7] as a method to establish self-adjointness of quantum fields and model Hamiltonians. But it has subsequently proved useful for a variety of other problems in field theory [17] [15] [8] [3], quantum mechanics [5], and Lie group theory [6]. Despite all these detailed applications no attempt appears to have been made to systematically develop the theory although reviews have been given in [22] and [9]. The primary aim of the present paper is to partially correct this situation. The secondary aim is to apply the theory to the analysis of first and second order partial differential operators associated with a Lie group.