Sub-Hardy Hilbert spaces in the non-commutative unit row-ball

Abstract: In the classical Hardy space theory of square-summable Taylor series in the complex unit disk there is a circle of ideas connecting Szeg\"o's theorem, factorization of positive semi-definite Toeplitz operators, non-extreme points of the convex set of contractive analytic functions, de Branges--Rovnyak spaces and the Smirnov class of ratios of bounded analytic functions in the disk. We extend these ideas to the multi-variable and non-commutative setting of the full Fock space, identified as the \emph{free Hardy space} of square-summable power series in several non-commuting variables. As an application, we prove a Fej\'er-Riesz style theorem for non-commutative rational functions.