Operator-theoretic Positivstellensätze (Q1876015)

The 17-th problem of Hilbert asserts that every polynomial in \(n\) variables which is non-negative on the Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) can be represented as a sum of squares of rational functions. An affirmative answer was given by \textit{E. Artin} [Abhandlungen Hamburg 5, 100--115 (1926; JFM 52.0122.01)]. Later contributions on the topic gave more precise statements. For example, \textit{B. Reznick} [Math. Z. 220, 75--97 (1990; Zbl 0828.12002)] proved that if \(p\) is a homogeneous polynomial in \(n\) variables with \(p(x)>0\) for all \(x\in\mathbb{R}^{n}\setminus\{0\}\), then there exist an integer \(\nu\geq0\) and a finite number of homogeneous polynomials \((q_{j})_{j\in J}\) such that \[ \| x\| ^{2\nu}p(x)=\sum_{j\in J}q_{j}(x)^{2}\qquad\text{for all } x\in\mathbb{R}^{n}. \] An extension of this result for positive polynomials on semialgebraic sets (that is, sets defined by polynomial inequalities) was given in [\textit{M. Putinar} and \textit{F.--H. Vasilescu}, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I, Math. 328, 585--589 (1999; Zbl 0973.14031)]. In the paper under review, the authors investigate the structure of polynomials of the form \(p\in\mathbb{R}[x]\otimes A\) (that is, polynomials with variables on \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) and coefficients in an arbitrary \(C^{\ast}\)-algebra \(A\)) and having the property of being positive (in the operator-theoretic sense) on a certain ``semialgebraic'' subset \(K\) of \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) defined through a finite number of inequalities of the form \(p_{k}(x)\geq0,\) \(k=1,\ldots,m,\) where \(p_{k}\in\mathbb{R}[x]\otimes M_{\nu\times\nu}(\mathbb{C})\) is a polynomial on \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) having as coefficients (\(\nu\times\nu \))-matrices. The main result of the paper consists of giving a non-commutative infinite-dimensional analogue of Hilbert's 17-th problem in this prescribed framework. In a particular case, the main result reads as follows: Assume that \(p\in\mathbb{R}[x]\otimes A_{h}\) and \(p_{k}\in\mathbb{R}[x]\otimes M_{\nu_{k}\times\nu_{k}}(\mathbb{C})_{h}\) are homogeneous polynomials of even degree (where \(A_{h}\) is the real subspace of the self-adjoint elements of \(A\)) and that \(p(x)>0\) for all \(x\in K\), where \[ K:=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^{n}: \| x\| =1,\;p_{k}(x)\geq0\;(k=1,\ldots,m)\}\neq\emptyset. \] Then there exist homogeneous polynomials \(q_{j}\in\mathbb{C}[x]\otimes A_{h},\) \(q_{j,k}\in\mathbb{C}[x]\otimes M_{\nu_{k}\times1}(A)\) (\(j\in J,\) \(J\) finite and \(k\in\{1,\dots,m\}\)) and an integer \(\theta\in\mathbb{Z}_{+}\) such that \[ \| x\| ^{2\theta}p(x)=\sum_{j\in J}\left( q_{j}^{\ast}(x)q_{j} (x)+\sum_{i=1}^{m}q_{jk}^{\ast}(x)p_{k}(x)q_{jk}(x)\right) \quad \text{for all }x\in\mathbb{R}^{n}. \]