We prove that if θ is a continuous unital homomorphism of an operator algebra A into B(ℋ), and β is in the dual space of A, then the completely bounded norm of θ is less than or equal to the maximum of 1 and the completely bounded norm of θ+ βI. As an application, we give another proof of the Okubo–Ando theorem.

The Drury-Arveson space H^2_d, also known as symmetric Fock space or the d-shift space, is a Hilbert function space that has a natural d-tuple of operators acting on it, which gives it the structure of a Hilbert module. This survey aims to introduce the Drury-Arveson space, to give a panoramic view of the main operator theoretic and function theoretic aspects of this space, and to describe the universal role that it plays in multivariable operator theory and in Pick interpolation theory.

We give a direct proof of the Cotlar-Stein lemma, which does not rely on the power trick.

Broadly speaking, this paper is concerned with dual spaces of operator algebras. More precisely, we investigate the existence of what we call Lebesgue projections: central projections in the bidual of an operator algebra that detect the weak-* continuous part of the dual space. Associated with any such projection is a Lebesgue decomposition of the dual space. We are particularly interested in Lebesgue projections in the context of inclusions of operator algebras. We show how their presence is intimately connected with an extension property for the inclusion reminiscent of a classical theorem of Gleason and Whitney. We illustrate that this Gleason-Whitney property fails in many examples of concrete operator algebras of functions, which partly explains why compatible Lebesgue decompositions are scarce, and highlights that the classical inclusion H-infinity subset of L infinity on the circle does not display generic behaviour.

Every function in the Dirichlet space on the unit disc has an inner/outer factorization. We study which inner functions occur in this way. For Blaschke products, this is the well known question of which subsets of the disc are zero sets for the Dirichlet space. We also consider singular inner factors, and in particular prove an analogue of the Shapiro-Shields theorem in this setting. Our results on singular inner factors also yield new sufficient conditions for zero sets.

We consider variational regularization of nonlinear inverse problems in Banach spaces using Tikhonov functionals. This article addresses the problem of $\Gamma$-convergence of a family of Tikhonov functionals and assertions of the convergence of their respective infima. Such questions arise, if model uncertainties, inaccurate forward operators, finite dimensional approximations of the forward solutions and / or data, etc. make the evaluation of the original functional impossible and, thus, its minimizer not computable. But for applications it is of utmost importance that the minimizer of the replacement functional approximates the original minimizer. Under certain additional conditions this is satisfied if the approximated functionals converge to the original functional in the sense of $\Gamma$-convergence. We deduce simple criteria in different topologies which guarantee $\Gamma$-convergence as well as convergence of minimizing sequences.

Let $S$ be an operator system sitting in its C*-envelope $C^*_{\mathrm{min}}(S)$. Starting with a pure state on $S$, let $F$ be the face of state extensions to $C^*_{\mathrm{min}}(S)$. The dilation theorem of Davidson-Kennedy shows that the GNS representations corresponding to some of the extreme states of $F$ are boundary representations. We construct an explicit example in which $F$ is an interval and only one of the two extreme points yields a boundary representation.

A weighted composition operator on a reproducing kernel Hilbert space is given by a composition, followed by a multiplication. We study unitary and co-isometric weighted composition operators on unitarily invariant spaces on the Euclidean unit ball 𝔹_d. We establish a dichotomy between the spaces ℋ_γ with reproducing kernel (1 - ⟨ z,w ⟩)^-γ for γ> 0, and all other spaces. Whereas the former admit many unitary weighted composition operators, the latter only admit trivial ones. This extends results of Martín, Mas and Vukotić from the disc to the ball. Some of our results continue to hold when d = ∞.

The workshop brought together researchers in two fields, non-commutative function theory and free probability. There was a mini-course in each of these areas, and speakers in all the talks were encouraged to give expository talks that illuminated the broader reaches of their fields.

We develop a notion of capacity for the Drury-Arveson space $H^2_d$ of holomorphic functions on the Euclidean unit ball. We show that every function in $H^2_d$ has a non-tangential limit (in fact Kor\'anyi limit) at every point in the sphere outside of a set of capacity zero. Moreover, we prove that the capacity zero condition is sharp, and that it is equivalent to being totally null for $H^2_d$. We also provide applications to cyclicity. Finally, we discuss generalizations of these results to other function spaces on the ball.

We determine the Taylor spectra of quotient tuples of the d-shift on Drury-Arveson spaces with finite-dimensional coefficient spaces. We show that the Taylor spectrum can be described in terms of the approximate zero set of the annihilator ideal, and in terms of the pointwise behavior of the inner multiplier associated with the quotient tuple.

Given a $d$-tuple $T$ of commuting contractions on Hilbert space and a polynomial $p$ in $d$-variables, we seek upper bounds for the norm of the operator $p(T)$. Results of von Neumann and And\^o show that if $d=1$ or $d=2$, the upper bound $\|p(T)\| \le \|p\|_\infty$, holds, where the supremum norm is taken over the polydisc $\mathbb{D}^d$. We show that for $d=3$, there exists a universal constant $C$ such that $\|p(T)\| \le C \|p\|_\infty$ for every homogeneous polynomial $p$. We also show that for general $d$ and arbitrary polynomials, the norm $\|p(T)\|$ is dominated by a certain Besov-type norm of $p$.

We revisit tensor algebras of subproduct systems with Hilbert space fibers, resolving some open questions in the case of infinite dimensional fibers. We characterize when a tensor algebra can be identified as the algebra of uniformly continuous noncommutative functions on a noncommutative homogeneous variety or, equivalently, when it is residually finite dimensional: this happens precisely when the closed homogeneous ideal associated to the subproduct system satisfies a Nullstellensatz with respect to the algebra of uniformly continuous noncommutative functions on the noncommutative closed unit ball. We show that - in contrast to the finite dimensional case - in the case of infinite dimensional fibers this Nullstellensatz may fail. Finally, we also resolve the isomorphism problem for tensor algebras of subproduct systems: two such tensor algebras are (isometrically) isomorphic if and only if their subproduct systems are isomorphic in an appropriate sense.

We derive new estimates on analytic capacities of finite sequences in the unit disc in Besov spaces with zero smoothness, which sharpen the estimates obtained by N.K.Nikolski in 2005 and, for a range of parameters, are optimal. The work is motivated both from the perspective of complex analysis by the description of sets of zeros/uniqueness, and from the one of matrix analysis/operator theory by estimates on norms of inverses.

We characterize simply interpolating sequences (also known as onto interpolating sequences) for complete Pick spaces. We show that a sequence is simply interpolating if and only if it is strongly separated. This answers a question of Agler and McCarthy. Moreover, we show that in many important examples of complete Pick spaces, including weighted Dirichlet spaces on the unit disc and the Drury-Arveson space in finitely many variables, simple interpolation does not imply multiplier interpolation. In fact, in those spaces, we construct simply interpolating sequences that generate infinite measures, and uniformly separated sequences that are not multiplier interpolating.

In the theory of complete Pick spaces, the column-row property has appeared in a variety of contexts. We show that it is satisfied by every complete Pick space in the following strong form: each sequence of multipliers that induces a contractive column multiplication operator also induces a contractive row multiplication operator. In combination with known results, this yields a number of consequences. Firstly, we obtain multiple applications to the theory of weak product spaces, including factorization, multipliers and invariant subspaces. Secondly, there is a short proof of the characterization of interpolating sequences in terms of separation and Carleson measure conditions, independent of the solution of the Kadison-Singer problem. Thirdly, we find that in the theory of de Branges-Rovnyak spaces on the ball, the column-extreme multipliers of Jury and Martin are precisely the extreme points of the unit ball of the multiplier algebra.

This is an extended version of a three part mini course on the Drury-Arveson space given as part of the Focus Program on Analytic Function Spaces and their Applications, hosted by the Fields Institute and held remotely. The Drury-Arveson space, also known as symmetric Fock space, is a natural generalization of the classical Hardy space on the unit disc to the unit ball in higher dimensions. It plays a universal role both in operator theory and in function theory. These notes give an introduction to the Drury-Arveson space. They are not intended to give a comprehensive overview of the entire subject, but rather aim to explain some of the contexts in which the Drury-Arveson space makes an appearance and to showcase the different approaches to this space.

We study the multiplier algebras $A(\mathcal{H})$ obtained as the closure of the polynomials on certain reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces $\mathcal{H}$ on the ball $\mathbb{B}_d$ of $\mathbb{C}^d$. Our results apply, in particular, to the Drury-Arveson space, the Dirichlet space and the Hardy space on the ball. We first obtain a complete description of the dual and second dual spaces of $A(\mathcal H)$ in terms of the complementary bands of Henkin and totally singular measures for $\operatorname{Mult}(\mathcal{H})$. This is applied to obtain several definitive results in interpolation. In particular, we establish a sharp peak interpolation result for compact $\operatorname{Mult}(\mathcal{H})$-totally null sets as well as a Pick and peak interpolation theorem. Conversely, we show that a mere interpolation set is $\operatorname{Mult}(\mathcal{H})$-totally null.

A non-self-adjoint operator algebra is said to be residually finite dimensional (RFD) if it embeds into a product of matrix algebras. We characterize RFD operator algebras in terms of their matrix state space, and moreover show that an operator algebra is RFD if and only if every representation can be approximated by finite dimensional ones in the point weak operator topology. This is a non-self-adjoint version of a theorem of Exel and Loring for C⁎-algebras. Moreover, we construct an example of an operator algebra for which approximation in the point strong operator topology is not possible. As a consequence, the maximal C⁎-algebra generated by this operator algebra is not RFD. This answers questions of Clouâtre and Ramsey and of Clouâtre and Dor-On.

We characterize the common range of the adjoints of cyclic multiplication operators on the Drury--Arveson space. We show that a function belongs to this common range if and only if its Taylor coefficients satisfy a simple decay condition. To achieve this, we introduce the uniform Smirnov class on the ball and determine its dual space. We show that the dual space of the uniform Smirnov class equals the dual space of the strictly smaller Smirnov class of the Drury-Arveson space, and that this in turn equals the common range of the adjoints of cyclic multiplication operators.