Similarity of quotient Hilbert modules in the Cowen-Douglas class (Q2010411)

The problem of similarity and quasisimilarity of some operators is still an attractive domain in mathematics. A~lot of results for the case when the operators are defined on Hilbert spaces have been obtained under some conditions imposed on the operators, especially for similarity with unitary, isometries and contractions operators. In this paper, the similarity problem is considered in a general framework, obtaining characterizations of operators in the Cowen-Douglas class which are similar to adjoints of multiplication operators on standard reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of holomorphic functions, in particular, for the weighted Bergman spaces with not necessarily integer weights. To do this, basic concepts and known results related to the Cowen-Douglas Hilbert modules are recalled in the language of reproducing kernel Hilbert modules. Also, a new approach on the projection formula, derivatives of holomorphic maps, and curvature is presented, which will be useful in obtaining the expected similarity results. The concept of a Cowen-Douglas atom, a special but large class of rank one Cowen-Douglas Hilbert modules over \(\mathbb D\) is introduced. Natural examples of Cowen-Douglas atoms include the Hardy space and the weighted Bergman spaces. After obtaining some results concerning tensor product bundles, quotient modules and the quasi-affinity properties of Cowen-Douglas Hilbert modules, the main results about the similarity problem with the curvatures of Cowen-Douglas Hilbert modules are given. In such a way, for a simple rank one Cowen-Douglas Hilbert module \(\mathcal M\), or a weighted Bergman module, necessary and sufficient conditions for a class of Cowen-Douglas Hilbert modules satisfying some positivity conditions to be similar to \(\mathcal{M}\otimes \mathbb C^m\) are obtained. Also it is shown that, under certain uniform bound condition on the anti-holomorphic frame, a Cowen-Douglas Hilbert module is a quasi-affinity to a submodule of the free module \(\mathcal{M}\otimes \mathbb C^m\). The paper ends with a short overview of some interesting open problems.