arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Raphaël Clouâtre.
We provide a short argument to establish a Beurling-Lax-Halmos theorem for reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces whose kernel has a complete Nevanlinna-Pick factor. We also record factorization results for pairs of nested invariant subspaces.
We study similarity classes of commuting row contractions annihilated by what we call higher order vanishing ideals of interpolating sequences. Our main result exhibits a Jordan-type direct sum decomposition for these row contractions. We illustrate how the family of ideals to which our theorem applies is very rich, especially in several variables. We also give two applications of the main result. First, we obtain a purely operator theoretic characterization of interpolating sequences. Second, we classify certain classes of cyclic commuting row contractions up to quasi-similarity in terms of their annihilating ideals. This refines some of our recent work on the topic. We show how this classification is sharp: in general quasi-similarity cannot be improved to similarity. The obstruction to doing so is the existence, or lack thereof, of norm-controlled similarities between commuting tuples of nilpotent matrices, and we investigate this question in detail.
It is known that pure row contractions with one-dimensional defect spaces can be classified up to unitary equivalence by compressions of the standard $d$-shift acting on the full Fock space. Upon settling for a softer relation than unitary equivalence, we relax the defect condition and simply require the row contraction to admit a cyclic vector. We show that cyclic pure row contractions can be "transformed" (in a precise technical sense) into compressions of the standard $d$-shift. Cyclic decompositions of the underlying Hilbert spaces are the natural tool to extend this fact to higher multiplicities. We show that such decompositions face multivariate obstacles of an algebraic nature. Nevertheless, some decompositions are obtained for nilpotent commuting row contractions by analyzing function theoretic rigidity properties of their invariant subspaces.
An example due to Pisier shows that two commuting, completely polynomially bounded Hilbert space operators may not be simultaneously similar to contractions. Thus, while each operator is individually similar to a contraction, the pair is not jointly similar to a pair of commuting contractions. We show that this phenomenon does not occur in finite dimensions. More precisely, we show that a finite family of power bounded commuting matrices is always jointly similar to a family of contractions. In fact, the result can be extended to infinite families satisfying certain uniformity conditions. Our approach is based on a joint spectral decomposition of the underlying space.
We study non-selfadjoint operator algebras that can be entirely understood via their finite-dimensional representations. In contrast with the elementary matricial description of finite-dimensional $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebras, in the non-selfadjoint setting we show that an additional level of flexibility must be allowed. Motivated by this peculiarity, we consider a natural non-selfadjoint notion of residual finite-dimensionality. We identify sufficient conditions for the tensor algebra of a $\mathrm{C}^*$-correspondence to enjoy this property. To clarify the connection with the usual self-adjoint notion, we investigate the residual finite-dimensionality of the minimal and maximal $\mathrm{C}^*$-covers associated to an operator algebra.
We develop a completely bounded counterpart to the non-commutative Choquet boundary of an operator space. We show how the class of completely bounded linear maps is too large to accommodate our purposes. To overcome this obstacle, we isolate the subset of completely bounded linear maps on an operator space admitting a dilation of the same norm which is multiplicative on the generated $C^*$-algebra. We view such maps as analogues of the familiar unital completely contractive maps, and we exhibit many of their structural properties. Of particular interest to us are those maps which are extremal with respect to a natural dilation order. We establish the existence of extremals and show that they have a certain unique extension property. In particular, they give rise to $*$-homomorphisms which we use to associate to any representation of an operator space an entire scale of $C^*$-envelopes. We conjecture that these $C^*$-envelopes are all $*$-isomorphic, and verify this in some important cases.
We study restriction and extension properties for states on C$^*$-algebras with an eye towards hyperrigidity of operator systems. We use these ideas to provide supporting evidence for Arveson's hyperrigidity conjecture. Prompted by various characterizations of hyperrigidity in terms of states, we examine unperforated pairs of self-adjoint subspaces in a C$^*$-algebra. The configuration of the subspaces forming an unperforated pair is in some sense compatible with the order structure of the ambient C$^*$-algebra. We prove that commuting pairs are unperforated, and obtain consequences for hyperrigidity. Finally, by exploiting recent advances in the tensor theory of operator systems, we show how the weak expectation property can serve as a flexible relaxation of the notion of unperforated pairs.
We investigate various notions of peaking behaviour for states on a $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebra, where the peaking occurs within an operator system. We pay particularly close attention to the existence of sequences of elements forming an approximation of the characteristic function of a point in the state space. We exploit such characteristic sequences to localize the $\mathrm{C}^*$-algebra at a given state, and use this localization procedure to verify a variation of Arveson's hyperrigidity conjecture for arbitrary operator systems.
We study reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces on the unit ball with the complete Nevanlinna-Pick property through the representation theory of their algebras of multipliers. We give a complete description of the representations in terms of the reproducing kernels. While representations always dilate to $*$-representations of the ambient $C^*$-algebra, we show that in our setting we automatically obtain coextensions. In fact, we show that in many cases, this phenomenon characterizes the complete Nevanlinna-Pick property. We also deduce operator theoretic dilation results which are in the spirit of work of Agler and several other authors. Moreover, we identify all boundary representations, compute the $C^*$-envelopes and determine hyperrigidity for certain analogues of the disc algebra. Finally, we extend these results to spaces of functions on homogeneous subvarieties of the ball.
We consider a version of a famous open problem formulated by Kadison, asking whether bounded representations of operator algebras are automatically completely bounded. We investigate this question in the context of amenable operator algebras, and we provide an affirmative answer for representations whose range is residually finite-dimensional. Furthermore, we show that weak-${}^*$ closed, amenable, residually finite-dimensional operator algebras are similar to $C^*$-algebras, and in particular have the property that all their bounded representations are completely bounded. We prove our results for operator algebras having the so-called total reduction property, which is known to be weaker than amenability.
We examine rigidity phenomena for representations of amenable operator algebras which have an ideal of compact operators. We establish that a generalized version of Kadison's conjecture on completely bounded homomorphisms holds for the algebra if the associated quotient is abelian. We also prove that injective completely bounded representations of the algebra are similar to complete isometries. The main motivating example for these investigations is the recent construction of Choi, Farah and Ozawa of an amenable operator algebra that is not similar to a $C^*$-algebra, and we show how it fits into our framework. All of our results hold in the presence of the total reduction property, a property weaker than amenability.
We study the ideals of the closure of the polynomial multipliers on the Drury-Arveson space. Structural results are obtained by investigating the relation between an ideal and its weak-$*$ closure, much in the spirit of the corresponding classical facts for the disc algebra. Zero sets for multipliers are also considered and are deeply intertwined with the structure of ideals. Our approach is primarily based on duality arguments.
Absolutely continuous commuting row contractions admit a weak-$*$ continuous functional calculus. Building on recent work describing the first and second dual spaces of the closure of the polynomial multipliers on the Drury-Arveson space, we give a complete characterization of these commuting row contractions in measure theoretic terms. We also establish that completely non-unitary row contractions are necessarily absolutely continuous, in direct parallel with the case of a single contraction. Finally, we consider refinements of this question for row contractions that are annihilated by a given ideal.
We consider the closed algebra $\mathcal{A}_d$ generated by the polynomial multipliers on the Drury-Arveson space. We identify $\mathcal{A}_d^*$ as a direct sum of the preduals of the full multiplier algebra and of a commutative von Neumann algebra, and establish analogues of many classical results concerning the dual space of the ball algebra. These developments are deeply intertwined with the problem of peak interpolation for multipliers, and we generalize a theorem of Bishop-Carleson-Rudin to this setting by means of Choquet type integral representations. As a byproduct we shed some light on the nature of the extreme points of the unit ball of $\mathcal{A}^*_d$.
We identify the exposed points of the unit ball of the dual space of the ball algebra. As a corollary, we show that the predual of $H^\infty(\mathbb{B}_d)$ has no extreme points in its unit ball.
We consider the problem of classification of invariant subspaces for the class of uniform Jordan operators. We show that given two invariant subspaces $M_1$ and $M_2$ of a uniform Jordan operator $T=S(θ)\oplus S(θ)\oplus \ldots$, the subspace $M_2$ belongs to the quasiaffine orbit of $M_1$ if and only if the restrictions $T|M_1$ and $T|M_2$ are quasisimilar and the compression $T_{M_2^\perp}$ can be injected in the compression $T_{M_1^\perp}$. Our result refines previous work on the subject by Bercovici and Smotzer.
For an operator $T$ of class $C_0$ with multiplicity two, we show that the quasisimilarity class of an invariant subspace $M$ is determined by the quasisimilarity classes of the restriction $T|M$ and of the compression $T_{M^\perp}$. We also provide a canonical form for the subspace $M$.
Given two multiplicity-free operators $T_1$ and $T_2$ of class $C_0$ having the same finite Blaschke product as minimal function, the operator algebras $H^\infty(T_1)$ and $H^\infty(T_2)$ are isomorphic and $T_1$ is similar to $T_2$. We find conditions under which the norm of the similarity between the operators can be controlled by the norm of the algebra isomorphism. As an application, we improve upon earlier work and obtain results regarding similarity when the minimal function is an infinite product of finite Blaschke products satisfying the generalized Carleson condition.