Absolute continuity for commuting row contractions (Q290595)

The paper under review studies the so-called absolutely continuous row contractions. The essential motivation comes on the one hand from Sz.-Nagy-Foiaş theory, and on the other hand from the theory of the Drury-Arveson \(d\)-shift. Recall that a \(d\)-tuple \(T\) of commuting bounded linear Hilbert space operators \(T_1, \dots, T_d\) is a \textit{row contraction} if \(T_1T^*_1 + \dots + T_dT^*_d \leq I\), while a row contraction \(T\) is said to be \textit{absolutely continuous} if the functional calculus \(\phi \mapsto M_\phi\) extends to a weak*-continuous map on the multiplier algebra \(\mathcal M_d\). One of the main results (Theorem 3.2) describes all absolutely continuous row contractions: {Theorem.} If \(T\) is a commuting row contraction on a separable Hilbert space with the spherical unitary part \(U\) of its minimal co-extension, then the following are equivalent: {\parindent=0.7cm\begin{itemize}\item[(1)] \(T\) is absolutely continuous. \item[(2)] \(U\) is absolutely continuous. \item[(3)] The spectral measure of \(U\) is Henkin. \end{itemize}} A substantial part of this paper is devoted to interesting decomposition results. For instance, it is proved that any row contraction can be decomposed into an absolutely continuous row contraction and a totally singular spherical unitary (Theorem 3.7). This result generalizes Theorem 1.5 of [\textit{J. Eschmeier}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 75, No. 1, 157--176 (1997; Zbl 0878.47001)] (cf.\ Theorem 4 of [\textit{A. Athavale}, J. Funct. Anal. 154, No. 1, 117--129, Art. No. FU973196 (1998; Zbl 0919.47006)]). In view of the dilation theorem of \textit{V. Müller} and \textit{F. H. Vasilescu} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 117, No. 4, 979--989 (1993; Zbl 0777.47009)], it is likely that many of these considerations have counterparts for the class of row \(\nu\)-hypercontractions.