Polydisc contractions and regular dilations (Q7020402)

The existence of isometric dilations for \(n\)-tuples of commuting contractions is an interesting and often challenging problem. When such dilations exist, they yield the celebrated von Neumann inequality and establish deep connections with several areas of Hilbert function space theory. For \(n=1\) and \(n=2\), the existence of isometric dilations is guaranteed (the celebrated Sz.-Nagy and Ando dilation theory). However, in general, \(n\)-tuples of commuting contractions do not necessarily admit isometric dilations. Despite this, there remain notable classes of operator tuples that do dilate to (even tractable) tuples of commuting isometries. In [\textit{T. Andô}, Acta Sci. Math. 24, 88--90 (1963; Zbl 0116.32403)], one such class was studied, and in the process, an operator \(J_0\) (can be interpreted as an asymptotic limit) was introduced. This operator played a significant role in describing dilations and constructing models for these tuples. In the present paper, the operator \(J_0\) is extended to a broader class of commuting contraction tuples. It is then used to develop a more refined model theory for such operator tuples.