On generalised Putnam-Fuglede theorems (Q749844)

Let B(H) denote the algebra of operators on the Hilbert space H, and let P denote the class of \(A\in B(H)\) which are such that the restriction of A to an invariant subspace is in P whenever \(A\in P\) and which satisfy the property, henceforth called property (P2), that if the restriction of A to an invariant subspace is normal, then the subspace reduces A. Given P-classes \(P_ 1\) and \(P_ 2\), the pair \((P_ 1,P_ 2)\) is said to satisfy the (PF)-property if given \(A\in P_ 1\) and \(B^*\in P_ 2\) such that \(AB=XB\) for some \(X\in B(H)\), we have \(A^*X=XB^*\). Generalising the (classical) Putnam-Fuglede theorem, it is shown here that the pair \((P_ 1,P_ 2)\) has the (PF)-property if and only if, given \(A\in P_ 1\) and \(B^*\in P_ 2\) such that \(AX=XB\) for some quasi-affinity \(X\in B(H)\), the following conditions hold: (i) \(B^*\) is normal implies A is normal; (ii) A is a normal direct summand implies \(B^*\) has a normal direct summand; (iii) A and \(B^*\) pure implies X is non-existent. An interesting P-class is the class \({\mathcal C}_ 0\) of contractions with \(C_ 0\) completely non-unitary parts which satisfy property (P2). Assuming H to be separable, it is shown that if \({\mathcal C}_ 1\) denotes those \(A\in {\mathcal C}_ 0\) for which the defect operators \(D_ A=(1- A^*A)^{1/2}\) is of Hilbert-Schmidt class and for which either the pure part of A has empty point spectrum or the eigenvalues of A are all simple, then the pair (\({\mathcal C}_ 0,{\mathcal C}_ 1)\) has the (PF)- property. The class \({\mathcal C}_ 1\) defines a P-class; a crucial role in the proof of this statement is played by the interesting result that a \(C_ 0\) contraction with spectrum of the unit circle can not satisfy property (P2). Applications of these results are considered, amongst them that if A and B are quasi-similar hyponormal contractions such that the pure part of A has finite multiplicity and \(D_ B\) is of Hilbert-Schmidt class, then their normal parts are unitarily equivalent and their pure parts are quasi-similar.