On the adjoint of Hilbert space operators

In general, it is a non trivial task to determine the adjoint $S^*$ of an unbounded operator $S$ acting between two Hilbert spaces. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a given operator $T$ to be identical with $S^*$. In our considerations, a central role is played by the operator matrix $M_{S,T}=\left(\begin{array}{cc} I & -T\\ S & I\end{array}\right)$. Our approach has several consequences such as characterizations of closed, normal, skew- and selfadjoint, unitary and orthogonal projection operators in real or complex Hilbert spaces. We also give a self-contained proof of the fact that $T^*T$ always has a positive selfadjoint extension.