Which subnormal Toeplitz operators are either normal or analytic? (Q1760160)

A bounded operator \(T\) on a Hilbert space \(H\) is said to be hyponormal if its self-commutator \([T^*,T]=T^*T-TT^*\) is positive and subnormal if there exists a normal operator \(N\) on some Hilbert space \(K\supset H\) such that \(H\) is invariant under \(N\) and \(N|_H=T\). Let \(L_{M_n}^\infty\) (resp., \(H_{M_n}^2\)) denote the set of all \(n\times n\) matrix-valued functions defined on the unit circle with entries in \(L^\infty\) (resp., \(H^2\)) and let \(T_\Phi\) be the Toeplitz operator with symbol \(\Phi\in L_{M_n}^\infty\) that acts on \(H_{M_n}^2\). The operator \(T_\Phi\) is said to be analytic if \(\Phi\) is analytic. Recall that a symbol \(\Phi\) is said to be of bounded type if each of its entries is a quotient of two \(H^\infty\)-functions. Two matrix-valued functions \(\Phi,\Psi\in H_{M_n}^2\) are said to be left coprime if the only common left inner divisor of both is a unitary constant. The main result of the paper is the following generalization to the case of matrix-valued symbols of the Abrahamse theorem [\textit{M. B. Abrahamse}, ``Subnormal Toeplitz operators and functions of bounded type'', Duke Math. J. 43, 597--604 (1976; Zbl 0332.47017)]. Suppose that \(\Phi=\Phi_-^*+\Phi_+\in L_{M_n}^\infty\) is such that \(\Phi\) and \(\Phi^*\) are of bounded type, \(\Phi_+=A^*\Theta_0\Theta_2\) and \(\Phi_-=B^*\Theta_2\), where \(\Theta_i=\theta_i I_n\) with an inner function \(\theta_i\) and \(A,B\in H_{M_n}^2\). Assume that \(A,\Theta_2\) and \(B,\Theta_2\) are left coprime. If \(T_\Phi\) is hyponormal and the kernel of \([T_\Phi^*,T_\Phi]\) is invariant under \(T_\Phi\), then \(T_\Phi\) is normal or analytic. Hence, in particular, if \(T_\Phi\) is subnormal, then it is normal or analytic.