The first part of this book is an introduction with emphasis on examples that illustrate various aspects of the theory. The second part is devoted to applicatio... » 

The first part of this book is an introduction with emphasis on examples that illustrate various aspects of the theory. The second part is devoted to applications to C*-algebras, with a systematic exposition of tensor products of C*-algebras. The last part describes applications to non-self-adjoint operator algebras and similarity problems. In particular, the author's counterexample to the Halmos problem is presented, as well as work on the new concept of length of an operator algebra. «