Extending the notion of parallelism we introduce the concept of approximate parallelism in normed spaces and then substantially restrict ourselves to the setting of Hilbert space operators endowed with the operator norm. We present several characterizations of the exact and approximate operator parallelism in the algebra $\mathbb{B}(\mathscr{H})$ of bounded linear operators acting on a Hilbert space $\mathscr{H}$. Among other things, we investigate the relationship between the approximate parallelism and norm of inner derivations on $\mathbb{B}(\mathscr{H})$. We also characterize the parallel elements of a $C^*$-algebra by using states. Finally we utilize the linking algebra to give some equivalent assertions regarding parallel elements in a Hilbert $C^*$-module.

Keywords