On isometric intertwining liftings (Q4400732)

Let \(H\) be a separable Hilbert space; \(T,T',A\in L(H)\) are contractions such that \(AT=T'A\). The commutant lifting theorem of Sz.-Nagy and Foias states that there exists a contractive lifting \(B\) of \(A\) which intertwines the isometric dilations of \(T\) and \(T'\). Such a \(B\) is called an intertwining lifting of the triple \(\{T, T', A\}\): the collection of all intertwining liftings can be parametrized by a certain type of sequences of contractions, called ``choice sequences''. If the choice sequence is identically null, the corresponding lifting is called central, or maximum entropy, and has been the object of extensive study. The present paper deals with an opposite case called minimum entropy by \textit{C. Foias, A. Frazho} and \textit{A. Tannenbaum} [Linear Algebra Appl. 137/138, 213-238 (1990; Zbl 0709.47001)] corresponding to sequences with one isometry at the beginning. The main theorem shows that if \(T\in C_{\cdot 0}\) and \(I-A^*A\) has closed range, then any minimum entropy lifting is isometric. The result generalizes [loc. cit.], where it was proved under the supplementary assumption that \(I-TT^*\) has finite rank. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0892.00040].