Quasisimilarity of Cowen--Douglas operators (Q1777551): Difference between revisions

Let \({\mathcal L}({\mathcal H})\) be the set of all bounded linear operators on a complex separable Hilbert space \(\mathcal H\). For \(T\in {\mathcal L}({\mathcal H})\), let \({\mathcal A}'(T)\) denote the commutant of \(T\) and \({\text{rad}}\,{\mathcal A}'(T)\) the Jacobson radical of \({\mathcal A}'(T)\). An operator \(T\in{\mathcal L}({\mathcal H})\) is said to be strongly irreducible if there are no nontrivial idempotents in \({\mathcal A}'(T)\). Operators \(A\), \(B\in{\mathcal L}({\mathcal H})\) are quasisimilar if there exist operators \(X\) and \(Y\) with trivial kernels and dense ranges such that \(AX=XB\) and \(YA=BY\). For a connected open subset \(\Omega\) of the complex plane \(\mathbb C\) and a positive integer \(n\), let \({\mathcal B}_n(\Omega)\) denote the set of operators \(T\in {\mathcal L}({\mathcal H})\) which satisfy the following conditions: (1) \(\Omega\subset\sigma(T)\); (2) \({\text{ran}}(T-z)={\mathcal H}\) for \(z\in \Omega\); (3) \(\bigvee\{\ker (T-z)\colon\, z\in\Omega\}={\mathcal H}\); (4) \(\dim\ker(T-z)=n\) for \(z\in\Omega\). Operators from \({\mathcal B}_n(\Omega)\) are called Cowen--Douglas operators with index \(n\). The main result of the paper is the following Theorem. Let \(A\in {\mathcal B}_n(\Omega)\) be strongly irreducible and quasisimilar to an operator \(B\). Then the following statements hold: (1) \({\mathcal A}'(B)/{\text{ rad}}\,{\mathcal A}'(B)\) is commutative; (2) \(B\) is strongly irreducible. \noindent This answers a question posed by \textit{K.~R.\ Davidson} and \textit{D.~A.\ Herrero} in [J.\ Funct.\ Anal.\ 94, 27--73 (1990; Zbl 0731.47013)].