Contractive completions of Hankel partial contractions (Q1815447)

Recall that a Hankel matrix is composed from \(2n-1\) numbers \(a_k\) \((k=1,\dots,2n-1)\) in such a way, that the \(i\)-th row consists of the numbers \(a_i\), \(a_{i+1}, \dots,a_{i+n-1}\). Let \(H=H(a_1, \dots,a_n\), \(x_1, \dots,x_{n-1})\) be a Hankel matrix, with given \(a_1,\dots,a_n\) and unknown \(x_1,\dots,x_{n-1}\). The authors formulate the following problem: for given \(a_1,\dots, a_n\in\mathbb{R}\) find \(x_1,\dots, x_{n-1} \in\mathbb{R}\) such that \(H\) is contractive, i.e. its norm \(|H|\leq 1\). The cases \(2\times 2\) and \(3\times 3\) are always solvable, but for \(4\times 4\) matrices it is not always possible. The authors give concrete examples and analyze in detail the dependence of the solution set on the given data. Related problems are also discussed.