Essential normality, essential norms and hyperrigidity

Hilbert spaces with reproducing kernels (= (proper) functional Hilbert spaces, including de Branges-Rovnyak and other structured spaces) (46E22) Several-variable operator theory (spectral, Fredholm, etc.) (47A13) Abstract operator algebras on Hilbert spaces (47L30)

Abstract: Let

S = (S_{1}, l d o t s, S_{d})

denote the compression of the

d

-shift to the complement of a homogeneous ideal

I

of

m a t h b b C [z_{1}, l d o t s, z_{d}]

. Arveson conjectured that

S

is essentially normal. In this paper, we establish new results supporting this conjecture, and connect the notion of essential normality to the theory of the C*-envelope and the noncommutative Choquet boundary. The unital norm closed algebra

m a t h c a l B_{I}

generated by

S_{1}, l d o t s, S_{d}

modulo the compact operators is shown to be completely isometrically isomorphic to the uniform algebra generated by polynomials on

o v e r l i n e V := o v e r l i n e m a t h c a l Z (I) c a p m a t h b b B_{d}

, where

m a t h c a l Z (I)

is the variety corresponding to

I

. Consequently, the essential norm of an element in

m a t h c a l B_{I}

is equal to the sup norm of its Gelfand transform, and the C*-envelope of

m a t h c a l B_{I}

is identified as the algebra of continuous functions on

o v e r l i n e V c a p p a r t i a l m a t h b b B_{d}

, which means it is a complete invariant of the topology of the variety determined by

I

in the ball. Motivated by this determination of the C*-envelope of

m a t h c a l B_{I}

, we suggest a new, more qualitative approach to the problem of essential normality. We prove the tuple

S

is essentially normal if and only if it is hyperrigid as the generating set of a C*-algebra, which is a property closely connected to Arveson's notion of a boundary representation. We show that most of our results hold in a much more general setting. In particular, for most of our results, the ideal

I

can be replaced by an arbitrary (not necessarily homogeneous) invariant subspace of the

d

-shift.

Review text

Consider the reproducing kernel Hilbert space \(H^2_d\) associated with the positive definite kernel \(\kappa(z, w) :=\frac{1}{1-\langle{z},{w}\rangle}\) defined on the open unit ball \(\mathbb B\) in \(\mathbb C^d\). Let \(M_z\) be the \(d\)-tuple of multiplication operators \(M_{z_1}, \dots, M_{z_d}\) and let \(S_I=(S_1, \dots, S_d)\) denote the compression of \(M_z\) to the orthogonal complement of a homogeneous ideal \(I\) of polynomials in \(z_1, \dots, z_d\). Arveson's conjecture asserts that \(S_I\) is essentially normal, that is, the cross-commutators \(S^*_iS_j - S_jS^*_i\) are compact for all \(i, j =1, \dots, d\). Assuming Arveson's conjecture, we immediately have the quotient \(C^*\)-algebra \(\mathcal T_I/ \mathcal K\) to be abelian, where \(\mathcal T_I\) is the Toeplitz \(C^*\)-algebra generated by \(S_I\) and \(\mathcal K\) denotes the ideal of compact operators on the ambient space. By Gelfand-Naimark theory, we can identify \(\mathcal T_I/ \mathcal K\) with \(C(X)\) for some compact Hausdorff space \(X\). It has been noted in the paper under review that Arveson's conjecture is equivalent to the fact that \(\mathcal T_I/ \mathcal K \cong C(X)\) with \(X=(\overline{Z(I) \cap \mathbb B}) \cap \partial \mathbb B\), where \(Z(I)\) denotes the common zero set of the ideal \(I\). The major half of this paper provides a \(C^*\)-algebraic approach to Arveson's conjecture. In particular, one of the main results (Theorem 4.12) asserts that \(S_I\) is essentially normal if and only if \(S_I\) is hyperrigid, in the sense that for every non-degenerate representation \(\pi : \mathcal T_I \rightarrow B(\mathcal H)\), the restriction of \(\pi\) to the operator system generated by \(S_1, \dots, S_d\) has a unique unital completely positive extension, namely, \(\pi\) itself. Reviewer's comments: As mentioned in the corrigendum, the authors claimed in the paper under review that the restriction of the identity representation of a certain operator system has the unique extension property; however, the justification given is not sufficient. In particular, Theorem 4.12 stated above does not hold true for all homogeneous ideals; see the corrigendum [\url{arxiv:1507.05059}] for details.

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