Essential normality, essential norms and hyperrigidity (Q2345407)

Consider the reproducing kernel Hilbert space \(H^2_d\) associated with the positive definite kernel \(\kappa(z, w) :=\frac{1}{1-\langle{z},{w}\rangle}\) defined on the open unit ball \(\mathbb B\) in \(\mathbb C^d\). Let \(M_z\) be the \(d\)-tuple of multiplication operators \(M_{z_1}, \dots, M_{z_d}\) and let \(S_I=(S_1, \dots, S_d)\) denote the compression of \(M_z\) to the orthogonal complement of a homogeneous ideal \(I\) of polynomials in \(z_1, \dots, z_d\). Arveson's conjecture asserts that \(S_I\) is essentially normal, that is, the cross-commutators \(S^*_iS_j - S_jS^*_i\) are compact for all \(i, j =1, \dots, d\). Assuming Arveson's conjecture, we immediately have the quotient \(C^*\)-algebra \(\mathcal T_I/ \mathcal K\) to be abelian, where \(\mathcal T_I\) is the Toeplitz \(C^*\)-algebra generated by \(S_I\) and \(\mathcal K\) denotes the ideal of compact operators on the ambient space. By Gelfand-Naimark theory, we can identify \(\mathcal T_I/ \mathcal K\) with \(C(X)\) for some compact Hausdorff space \(X\). It has been noted in the paper under review that Arveson's conjecture is equivalent to the fact that \(\mathcal T_I/ \mathcal K \cong C(X)\) with \(X=(\overline{Z(I) \cap \mathbb B}) \cap \partial \mathbb B\), where \(Z(I)\) denotes the common zero set of the ideal \(I\). The major half of this paper provides a \(C^*\)-algebraic approach to Arveson's conjecture. In particular, one of the main results (Theorem 4.12) asserts that \(S_I\) is essentially normal if and only if \(S_I\) is hyperrigid, in the sense that for every non-degenerate representation \(\pi : \mathcal T_I \rightarrow B(\mathcal H)\), the restriction of \(\pi\) to the operator system generated by \(S_1, \dots, S_d\) has a unique unital completely positive extension, namely, \(\pi\) itself. Reviewer's comments: As mentioned in the corrigendum, the authors claimed in the paper under review that the restriction of the identity representation of a certain operator system has the unique extension property; however, the justification given is not sufficient. In particular, Theorem 4.12 stated above does not hold true for all homogeneous ideals; see the corrigendum [\url{arxiv:1507.05059}] for details.