Distinguished varieties in the polydisc and dilation of commuting contractions

TL;DR

This paper characterizes distinguished varieties in the polydisc using spectral theory, links them to algebraic curves, and explores their role in the dilation theory of commuting contractions.

Contribution

It generalizes the characterization of distinguished varieties to higher dimensions and connects them with dilation theory for commuting contractions.

Findings

Characterizations of distinguished varieties via Taylor joint spectrum.

Distinguished varieties are parts of algebraic curves that are set-theoretic complete intersections.

Conditions for the existence of commuting unitary dilations related to distinguished varieties.

Abstract

A distinguished variety in the polydisc $\mathbb D^n$ is an affine complex algebraic variety that intersects $\mathbb D^n$ and exits the domain through the $n$-torus $\mathbb T^n$ without intersecting any other part of the topological boundary of $\mathbb D^n$. We find two different characterizations for a distinguished variety in the polydisc $\mathbb D^n$ in terms of the Taylor joint spectrum of certain linear matrix-pencils and thus generalize the seminal work due to Agler and M\raise.45ex\hbox{c}Carthy [Acta Math., 2005] on distinguished varieties in $\mathbb D^2$. We show that a distinguished variety in $\mathbb D^n$ is a part of an affine algebraic curve which is a set-theoretic complete intersection. We also show that if $(T_1, \dots , T_n)$ is commuting tuple of Hilbert space contractions such that the defect space of $T=\prod_{i=1}^n T_i$ is finite dimensional, then $(T_1, \dots , T_n)$ admits a commuting unitary dilation $(U_1, \dots , U_n)$ with $U=\prod_{i=1}^n U_i$ being the minimal unitary dilation of $T$ if and only if some certain matrices associated with $(T_1, \dots , T_n)$ define a distinguished variety in $\mathbb D^n$.