Wold decomposition for doubly commuting isometries (Q2442293)

The von Neumann-Wold decomposition theorem for isometries states that any isometry \(S\) on a Hilbert space \(\mathcal H\) can be decomposed into unitary part \(U\) and analytic part \(A\): \[ S = U \oplus A ~~\text{on} ~~{\mathcal H} = {\mathcal H}_u \oplus {\mathcal H}_a, \] where \(U\) is unitary on \({\mathcal H}_u,\) and \({\mathcal H}_a = {{\bigvee}}_{n \geq 0} S^n (\ker(S^*))\). The paper under review obtains a multi-variable analog of the Wold decomposition theorem for doubly commuting isometries, which generalizes a result of \textit{M. Słocinski} [Ann. Pol. Math. 37, 255--262 (1980; Zbl 0485.47018)]. Recall that \(S\) is a tuple of doubly commuting isometries if each \(S_i\) is isometry, and the cross commutators \([S_i, S_j]\), \([S^*_i, S_j]\) are zero for \(i \neq j\). The method employed in the paper under review not only yields a new proof of Słocinski's result, but also provides an explicit description of the closed subspaces in the orthogonal decomposition of the Hilbert space.