Hilbert spaces contractively included in the Hardy space of the bidisk (Q5928182)

Let \(\mathcal F\) and \(\mathcal G\) be Hilbert spaces, \(\mathcal L(\mathcal F,\mathcal G)\) the set of bounded operators from \(\mathcal F\) to \(\mathcal G\), and \(\mathbb D^2 = \mathbb D\times \mathbb D\) the open unit bidisk in \(\mathbb C^2\). A function \(S: \mathbb D^2 \to \mathcal L(\mathcal F,\mathcal G)\) is called a Schur function if it is holomorphic in \(\mathbb D^2\) and \(\|S(z)\|\leq 1\) for all \(z\in\mathbb D^2\). In the paper the authors study the reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces \(\mathcal H(\mathbb D^2,S)\) with reproducing kernels of the form \[ K_{S}(w,z) = \frac{I - S(z)S(w)^{\ast} }{(1-z_1\overline{ w}_1)(1-z_2\overline{w}_2)}, \quad w, z\in \mathbb D^2. \] It is shown that the spaces \(\mathcal H(\mathbb D^2,S)\) are contractively included in the Hardy space \(H^2(\mathbb D^2,\mathcal G)\) and that these spaces form a proper subset of the class of the so-called sub-Hardy Hilbert spaces of the bidisk. A characterization of the sub-Hardy Hilbert spaces of \(\mathbb D^2\) is also included in the paper.