Ando dilations, von Neumann inequality, and distinguished varieties (Q504651)

The well-known von Neumann inequality states that, if \(T\) is a contraction on a Hilbert space and \(p\) is a polynomial, then \[ \|p(T)\|\leq\sup\{|p(z)|: |z|\leq 1\}. \] Sz.-Nagy's dilation theorem provides an elegant proof of this result. Von Neumann's inequality generalizes to pairs of commuting contractions by Ando's dilation theory. However, it is known that for three or more commuting contractions, von Neumann's inequality does not hold in general. \textit{J. Agler} and \textit{J. E. McCarthy} [Acta Math. 194, No. 2, 133--153 (2005; Zbl 1102.32005)] improved Ando's inequality for pairs of commuting strict contractive matrices. They showed that, if \(T_1\) and \(T_2\) are commuting strictly contractive operators on a finite-dimensional Hilbert space and \(p\) is a polynomial in two variables, then \[ \|p(T_1, T_2)\| \leq \|p\|_{V}:=\sup\{|p(z_1,z_2)|: (z_1,z_2)\in V\}, \] where \(V\) is a certain distinguished variety depending on the pair \((T_1,T_2)\). In the present paper, the authors first obtain an explicit construction for the isometric dilations of pairs of commuting contractions whose defect spaces are finite-dimensional. They then generalize Agler-McCarthy's result to such pairs. More specifically, it is shown that, if \((T_1,T_2)\) is a pair of commuting contractions with finite-dimensional defect spaces and \(T_1\) is pure, then there exists a variety \(V\) in the closed unit bidisc such that \(\|p(T_1,T_2)\|\leq\|p\|_{V}\). If \(T_2\) is also a pure contraction, then \(V\) can be taken to be a distinguished variety.