Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2009
Let X be a (real or complex) rearrangement-invariant function space on Ω (where Ω = [0, 1] or Ω ⊆ N) whose norm is not proportional to the L2-norm. Let H be a separable Hilbert space. We characterize surjective isometries of X (H). We prove that if T is such an isometry then there exist Borel maps a: Ω → + K and σ: Ω → Ω and a strongly measurable operator map S of Ω into B (H) so that for almost all ω, S(ω) is a surjective isometry of H, and for any f ∈ X(H), T f(ω) = a(ω)S(ω)(f(σ(ω))) a.e. As a consequence we obtain a new proof of the characterization of surjective isometries in complex rearrangement-invariant function spaces.