On partial isometries with circular numerical range (Q2063209)

The numerical range \(W(A)\) of a complex square matrix \(A\) of size \(n\) is the set of values of the quadratic form \(\langle Ax,x\rangle\) for all \(x\in\mathbb{C}^n\) with \(\|x\|=1\). A matrix \(A\) is called a \textit{partial isometry} if it preserves norms of vectors from \((\ker A)^{\perp}\). It was conjectured that if the numerical range of a partial isometry \(A\) is a circular disk, then the centre of this disk is the origin. \textit{H.-L. Gau} et al. [Linear Multilinear Algebra 64, No. 1, 14--35 (2016; Zbl 1354.47007)] used methods of the matrix theory to prove this conjecture for \(n\leqslant 4\). In the paper, the authors proved the aforementioned conjecture for an important particular case when \(\mathrm{rank}\, A=n-1\), where \(n\) is the size of the matrix~\(A\). \textbf{Theorem 1.} Let \(A\) be a partial isometry acting on \(\mathbb{C}^n\). If \(\dim\ker A = 1\), and the numerical range \(W(A)\) of \(A\) is a circular disk, then this disk is centered at the origin. To prove this theorem the authors use the fact that any such matrix is unitary similar to a compressed shift operator \(S_B\) generated by a Blaschke product \(B\). Since the numerical range of \(S_B\) as intersection of Poncelet polygons, the authors reduce the initial problem to a problem for Blaschke products and prove the following theorem which is equivalent to Theorem 1. \textbf{Theorem 2.} Let B be a Blaschke product of degree \(n\geqslant3\) with \(B(0) = 0\) and \(B'(0) = 0\). If the Poncelet curve associated with \(B\) is a circle \(C\), then its center~\(c\) is the origin. For their proof of Theorem 2, the authors use a special representation of Blaschke products related to boundary interpolation, and an explicit formula for the barycenter of the vertices of Poncelet polygons involving elliptic functions.