The polar decomposition for adjointable operators on Hilbert $C^*$-modules and centered operators

Abstract: Let $T$ be an adjointable operator between two Hilbert $C^*$-modules and $T^*$ be the adjoint operator of $T$. The polar decomposition of $T$ is characterized as $T=U(T^*T)^\frac12$ and $\mathcal{R}(U^)=\overline{\mathcal{R}(T^)}$, where $U$ is a partial isometry, $\mathcal{R}(U^*)$ and $\overline{\mathcal{R}(T^*)}$ denote the range of $U^*$ and the norm closure of the range of $T^*$, respectively. Based on this new characterization of the polar decomposition, an application to the study of centered operators is carried out.