On zero-trace commutators

We present some results concerning the trace of certain trace class commutators of operators acting on a separable, complex Hilbert space. It is shown, among other things, that if X is a Hilbert-Schmidt operator and A is an operator such that AX − XA is a trace class operator, then tr (AX − XA) = 0 provided one of the following conditions holds: (a) A is subnormal and A*A − AA* is a trace class operator, (b) A is a hyponormal contraction and 1 − AA* is a trace class operator, (c) A2 is normal and A*A − AA* is a trace class operator, (d) A2 and A3 are normal. It is also shown that if A is a self - adjoint operator, if f is a function that is analytic on some neighbourhood of the closed disc{z: |z| ≥ ||A||}, and if X is a compact operator such that f (A) X − Xf (A) is a trace class operator, then tr (f (A) X − Xf (A))=0.