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SOME PROPERTIES OF N -SUPERCYCLIC OPERATORS P S. BOURDON, N. S. FELDMAN, AND J. H. SHAPIRO Abstract. Let T be a continuous linear operator on a Hausdorff topological vector space X over the field C. We show that if T is N-supercyclic, i.e., if X has an N dimensional subspace whose orbit under T is dense in X , then T ∗ has at most N eigenvalues (counting geometric multiplicity). We then show that N-supercyclicity cannot occur nontrivially in the finite dimensional setting: the orbit of an N dimensional subspace cannot be dense in an N + 1 dimensional space. Finally, we show that a subnormal operator on an infinite- dimensional Hilbert space can never be N-supercyclic. 1. Introduction Let E be a subset of a complex, Hausdorff topological vector space X and let T : X → X be a continuous linear operator. The orbit of E under T , denoted orbT (E), is the subset of X given by orbT (E) = ∪∞ T k (E). k=0 If E = {x} is a singleton and orbT (E) is dense in X , then T is said to be hypercyclic and x is a hypercyclic vector for T . If E = {x} is a singleton and the linear span of orbT (E) is dense in X , then T is cyclic with cyclic vector x. Finally, if E is a subspace of dimension N and orbT (E) is dense in X , then T is said to be N-supercyclic and E is a called a supercyclic subspace for T . The study of density of orbits of singletons, i.e., the study of what is now called “hyper- cyclicity,” dates back at least to a 1929 paper by G. D. Birkhoff [4]. The study of cyclicity dates back even further. In 1974 Hilden and Wallen [12] introduced the notion of “super- cyclicity”, defining T : X → X to be superc