Unitary part of a contraction (Q961069)

The paper is concerned with a characterization of the unitary part of a contraction \(A\) on a finite-dimensional complex Hilbert space \(H\). Starting from the structure of the unitary part in the canonical decomposition of a contraction into a unitary part and a completely nonunitary part, two indices \(j(A)\) and \(k(A)\) are associated: \(j(A)=\min\{j : 0\leq j\leq \infty\), \(H_j(A)=H_\infty(A)\cap H_\infty(A^*)\}\) and \(k(A)=\min\{k : 0\leq k\leq \infty\), \(H_k(A)\cap H_k(A^*)=H_\infty(A)\cap H_\infty(A^*)\}\), where for finite, positive \(j\), \(H_j=\ker (I-A^{*j}A^j)\). Recall also that a \(n\)-dimensional contraction \(A\) is of class \(\mathcal S_n\) if its eigenvalues are in the open unit disc and \(\text{rank} (I_n-A^*A)=1\). The main results of the paper are characterizations of the indices \(j(A)\) and \(k(A)\). Namely, if \(A\) is a contraction on a \(n\)-dimensional space, then \(j(A)\leq n\). The equality holds if and only if \(A\) is of class \(\mathcal S_n\) (Theorem 2.1). Also, if \(A\) is a contraction on a \(n\)-dimensional space, then \(k(A)\leq[n/2]\). For an operator \(A\) of class \(\mathcal S_n\), we have the equality \(k(A)=[n/2]\) (Theorem 3.4).