Minimal unitary dilations for commuting contractions

TL;DR

This paper characterizes when commuting contractions can be dilated to commuting isometries and unitaries on minimal dilation spaces, providing explicit constructions and conditions, especially for C.0 contractions.

Contribution

It establishes necessary and sufficient conditions for minimal unitary dilations of commuting contractions and offers explicit dilation constructions, including for C.0 contractions.

Findings

Characterization of dilations to commuting isometries and unitaries.

Explicit dilation constructions on Sch"affer and Sz.-Nagy-Foias spaces.

Special dilation methods for C.0 contractions.

Abstract

For commuting contractions $T_1,\dots ,T_n$ acting on a Hilbert space $\mathcal H$ with $T=\prod_{i=1}^n T_i$, we show that $(T_1, \dots, T_n)$ dilates to commuting isometries $(V_1, \dots , V_n)$ on the minimal isometric dilation space of $T$ with $V=\prod_{i=1}^n V_i$ being the minimal isometric dilation of $T$ if and only if $(T_1^*, \dots , T_n^*)$ dilates to commuting isometries $(Y_1, \dots , Y_n)$ on the minimal isometric dilation space of $T^*$ with $Y=\prod_{i=1}^n Y_i$ being the minimal isometric dilation of $T^*$. Then, we prove an analogue of this result for unitary dilations of $(T_1, \dots , T_n)$ and its adjoint. We find a necessary and sufficient condition such that $(T_1, \dots , T_n)$ possesses a unitary dilation $(W_1, \dots , W_n)$ on the minimal unitary dilation space of $T$ with $W=\prod_{i=1}^n W_i$ being the minimal unitary dilation of $T$. We show an explicit construction of such a unitary dilation on both Sch$\ddot{a}$ffer and Sz. Nagy-Foias minimal unitary dilation spaces of $T$. Also, we show that a relatively weaker hypothesis is necessary and sufficient for the existence of such a unitary dilation when $T$ is a $C._0$ contraction, i.e. when ${T^*}^n \rightarrow 0$ strongly as $n \rightarrow \infty $. We construct a different unitary dilation for $(T_1, \dots , T_n)$ when $T$ is a $C._0$ contraction.