Partial isometries and the conjecture of C. K. Fong and S. K. Tsui (Q5962565)

\textit{C.K. Fong} and \textit{S.K. Tsui} [J. Oper. Theory 5, 73--76 (1981; Zbl 0489.47009)] formulated the following conjecture: if \(T\) is a bounded operator on a Hilbert space satisfying \[ |T| \leq |\mathrm{Re}(T)|, \] then \(T\) is self-adjoint. As usual, for a bounded operator \(A\) on a Hilbert space, the modulus of \(A\) is \(|A|=(A^{*}A)^{1/2}\) and the real part of \(A\) is \(\mathrm{Re}(A) = (A+A^{*})/2\). The conjecture is still open but it has been shown to hold for certain classes of operators including compact operators, hyponormal operators, and elements in finite von Neumann algebras, just to list a few. The paper under review shows that Fong-Tsui's conjecture holds for many other classes: partial isometries, contractive quasi-isometries, \(2\)-quasi-isometries, and Brownian isometries of positive covariance. For a given contraction \(T\), by considering the maximal invariant subspace on which \(T\) acts as a partial isometry, the authors decompose \(T\) into the block matrix form \[ T = \begin{pmatrix} W & R\\ 0 & Q \end{pmatrix}, \] where \(W\) is a partial isometry and \(R\) and \(Q\) satisfy certain additional conditions. If \(|T|\leq |\mathrm{Re}(T)|\), a more refined decomposition is obtained. The proofs of the main results make essential use of such matrix forms.