Dilation theory: a guided tour

Abstract: Dilation theory is a paradigm for studying operators by way of exhibiting an operator as a compression of another operator which is in some sense well behaved. For example, every contraction can be dilated to (i.e., is a compression of) a unitary operator, and on this simple fact a penetrating theory of non-normal operators has been developed. In the first part of this survey, I will leisurely review key classical results on dilation theory for a single operator or for several commuting operators, and sample applications of dilation theory in operator theory and in function theory. Then, in the second part, I will give a rapid account of a plethora of variants of dilation theory and their applications. In particular, I will discuss dilation theory of completely positive maps and semigroups, as well as the operator algebraic approach to dilation theory. In the last part, I will present relatively new dilation problems in the noncommutative setting which are related to the study of matrix convex sets and operator systems, and are motivated by applications in control theory. These problems include dilating tuples of noncommuting operators to tuples of commuting normal operators with a specified joint spectrum. I will also describe the recently studied problem of determining the optimal constant $c = c_{\theta,\theta'}$, such that every pair of unitaries $U,V$ satisfying $VU = e^{i\theta} UV$ can be dilated to a pair of $cU', cV'$, where $U',V'$ are unitaries that satisfy the commutation relation $V'U' = e^{i\theta'} U'V'$. The solution of this problem gives rise to a new and surprising application of dilation theory to the continuity of the spectrum of the almost Mathieu operator from mathematical physics.