Weakly \(n\)-hyponormal weighted shifts and their examples (Q2494139)

A bounded linear operator \(T\) on a complex Hilbert space is said to be \(n\)-hyponormal if the \(n\times n\) operator matrix \(({T^*}^{j}T^i-T^i{T^*}^{j})_{0\leq i,j\leq n}\) is positive, and is said to be weakly \(n\)-hyponormal provided that every linear combination of \(T,T^2,\dots,T^n\) is hyponormal. Every \(n\)-hyponormal operator is indeed weakly \(n\)-hyponormal and every subnormal operator is \(n\)-hyponormal by the Bram--Halmos criterion for subnormality. In [Integral Equations Oper.\ Theory 13, No.~1, 49--66 (1990; Zbl 0702.47011)], \textit{R.~E.\ Curto} gave a complete characterization of \(n\)-hyponormality for unilateral scalar weighted shifts in terms of their corresponding weight sequences; see also [\textit{R.~E.\ Curto, S.~H.\ Lee} and \textit{W.~Y.\ Lee}, Proc.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 133, No.~6, 1805--1816 (2005; Zbl 1066.47022)]. In [Proc.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 107, No.~1, 187--195 (1989; Zbl 0677.47018)], \textit{S.~McCullough} and \textit{V.~Paulsen} characterized weakly \(n\)-hyponormal cyclic contractions. In the paper under review, the authors obtain a reformulation of the latters' result and utilize it to characterize weakly \(n\)-hyponormal unilateral scalar weighted shifts. Furthermore, they use this criterion to obtain new examples of weakly \(n\)-hyponormal unilateral scalar weighted shifts which are not \(n\)-hyponormal for \(n=2,\dots,10\). Finally, they close the paper with some remarks and a couple of open questions. Part of the calculations here were obtained via the computational software tool \texttt{Mathematica}.