Similarity problems and completely bounded maps. Includes the solution to ``The Halmos problem''. (Q5927733)

This very interesting book is the second expanded edition of the book reviewed in Zbl 0843.47010]. It is devoted to versions of three famous similarity problems, which, roughly speaking, amount to asking, whether certain bounded linear maps are automatically completely bounded. Two of them are still open (at least in some form). The third was recently solved by the author. The main body of the book remained intact, some additional material was inserted (statements marked with asterisks), notably in Chapter 2, two new chapters 9 and 10 were added and the literature updated. Namely, the class of ``unitarizable'' l.c. groups \(G\) is considered in Chapter 2 (their continuous uniformly bounded representations on a Hilbert space are unitarizable). The author's partial solution to the Dixmier problem (if \(G\) is unitarizable is it necessary amenable?) is given in Notes and Remarks to Chapter 2 as a converse to the Dixmier-Day theorem. Chapter 9 gives a more direct proof for the author's recent counterexample [J. Am. Math. Soc. 10, No. 2, 351-369 (1997; Zbl 0869.47014)] to the Halmos problem. A polynomially bounded operator on \(\ell_2\) which is not similar to a contraction is presented. In Chapter 10, returning to the Kadison problem, the following generalized similarity problem emerges: for which unital Banach algebras \(A\) any bounded unital homomorphism \(u:A\to B(H)\) is similar to a contractive one? This is true if \(A\) has finite length \(\ell(A)\) [the author, St. Petersbg. Math. J. 10, No. 1, 103-146 (1999; Zbl 0911.47038)]. A survey of the other author's results on the possible notions of length is given and the related open questions are posed.