Von Neumann's inequality for commuting weighted shifts

We show that every multivariable contractive weighted shift dilates to a tuple of commuting unitaries, and hence satisfies von Neumann's inequality. This answers a question of Lubin and Shields. We also exhibit a closely related $3$-tuple of commuting contractions, similar to Parrott's example, which does not dilate to a $3$-tuple of commuting unitaries.Comment: 13 pages; minor change

Multipliers of embedded discs

We consider a number of examples of multiplier algebras on Hilbert spaces associated to discs embedded into a complex ball in order to examine the isomorphism problem for multiplier algebras on complete Nevanlinna-Pick reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. In particular, we exhibit uncountably many discs in the ball of $\ell^2$ which are multiplier biholomorphic but have non-isomorphic multiplier algebras. We also show that there are closed discs in the ball of $\ell^2$ which are varieties, and examine their multiplier algebras. In finite balls, we provide a counterpoint to a result of Alpay, Putinar and Vinnikov by providing a proper rational biholomorphism of the disc onto a variety $V$ in $\mathbb B_2$ such that the multiplier algebra is not all of $H^\infty(V)$. We also show that the transversality property, which is one of their hypotheses, is a consequence of the smoothness that they require.Comment: 34 pages; the earlier version relied on a result of Davidson and Pitts that the fibre of the maximal ideal space of the multiplier algebra over a point in the open ball consists only of point evaluation. This result fails for $d = \infty$, and has necessitated some changes; to appear in Complex Analysis and Operator Theor

Factorizations induced by complete Nevanlinna-Pick factors

We prove a factorization theorem for reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces whose kernel has a normalized complete Nevanlinna-Pick factor. This result relates the functions in the original space to pointwise multipliers determined by the Nevanlinna-Pick kernel and has a number of interesting applications. For example, for a large class of spaces including Dirichlet and Drury-Arveson spaces, we construct for every function $f$ in the space a pluriharmonic majorant of $|f|^2$ with the property that whenever the majorant is bounded, the corresponding function $f$ is a pointwise multiplier.Comment: 35 pages; minor change

Weak products of complete Pick spaces

Let $\mathcal H$ be the Drury-Arveson or Dirichlet space of the unit ball of $\mathbb C^d$. The weak product $\mathcal H\odot\mathcal H$ of $\mathcal H$ is the collection of all functions $h$ that can be written as $h=\sum_{n=1}^\infty f_n g_n$, where $\sum_{n=1}^\infty \|f_n\|\|g_n\|<\infty$. We show that $\mathcal H\odot\mathcal H$ is contained in the Smirnov class of $\mathcal H$, i.e. every function in $\mathcal H\odot\mathcal H$ is a quotient of two multipliers of $\mathcal H$, where the function in the denominator can be chosen to be cyclic in $\mathcal H$. As a consequence we show that the map $\mathcal N \to clos_{\mathcal H\odot\mathcal H} \mathcal N$ establishes a 1-1 and onto correspondence between the multiplier invariant subspaces of $\mathcal H$ and of $\mathcal H\odot\mathcal H$. The results hold for many weighted Besov spaces $\mathcal H$ in the unit ball of $\mathbb C^d$ provided the reproducing kernel has the complete Pick property. One of our main technical lemmas states that for weighted Besov spaces $\mathcal H$ that satisfy what we call the multiplier inclusion condition any bounded column multiplication operator $\mathcal H \to \oplus_{n=1}^\infty \mathcal H$ induces a bounded row multiplication operator $\oplus_{n=1}^\infty \mathcal H \to \mathcal H$. For the Drury-Arveson space $H^2_d$ this leads to an alternate proof of the characterization of interpolating sequences in terms of weak separation and Carleson measure conditions.Comment: minor change

An HpH^p scale for complete Pick spaces

We define by interpolation a scale analogous to the Hardy $H^p$ scale for complete Pick spaces, and establish some of the basic properties of the resulting spaces, which we call $\mathcal{H}^p$. In particular, we obtain an $\mathcal{H}^p-\mathcal{H}^q$ duality and establish sharp pointwise estimates for functions in $\mathcal{H}^p$