Total dilations. (Q1399238)

The paper under review concerns total dilations on a finite-dimensional Hilbert space \({\mathcal H}\). The author shows that if \(\{A_j\}^n_{j=0}\) is a family of strictly positive operators on a Hilbert space \({\mathcal H}\), then for some integer \(k\), we can dilate each \(A_j\) into a positive operator \(B_j\) on \(\bigoplus^k{\mathcal H}\) in such a way that: (i) the diagonal of \(B_j\) consists of a repitition of \(A\); (ii) there exist a positive operator \(B\) on \(\bigoplus^k{\mathcal H}\) and an increasing function \(f_j: (0,\infty)\to (0,\infty)\) such that \(B_j= f_j(B)\). [A sequel to this article has appeared ibid. 374, 19--29 (2003; Zbl 1058.47006), see the following review.]