The first two definitions describe a von Neumann algebra concretely as a set of operators acting on some given Hilbert space. showed that von Neumann algebras can also be defined abstractly as C*-algebras that have a predual; in other words the von Neumann algebra, considered as a Banach space, is the dual of some other Banach space called the predual. The predual of a von Neumann algebra is in fact unique up to isomorphism. Some authors use "von Neumann algebra" for the algebras together with a Hilbert space action, and "W*-algebra" for the abstract concept, so a von Neumann algebra is a W*-algebra together with a Hilbert space and a suitable faithful unital action on the Hilbert space. The concrete and abstract definitions of a von Neumann algebra are similar to the concrete and abstract definitions of a C*-algebra, which can be defined either as norm-closed *-algebras of operators on a Hilbert space, or as Banach *-algebras such that ||"aa*"||=||"a"|| ||"a*"||.