University of Georgia

Mathematics Department Colloquium

Cora Sadosky

Howard University

April 8, 1999

How a general dilation construction pays off in analysis


Abstract: Positive definite functions admit integral representation as Fourier transforms of positive measures. This famous result, since its discovery in the early part of the century, has shown to have major applications in probability, harmonic analysis, and even operator theory. Parallel applications require a more general integral representation theorem, that includes as a bonus an extension property. The procedure involves extending a form to a new containing space while preserving its norm and invariance properties. This dilation cum representation extends to positive definite vector-valued functions, and to completely positive maps, leading to non-commutative results. More surprisingly, with appropriate definitions one can carry such a dilation construction, not only in ordinary (Lax-Phillips) scattering systems, but in scattering structures with several (not necessarily commuting) evolution groups. The corresponding integral representations provide applications to function spaces in several variables (e.g., the Hardy space in the polydisk and symplectic spaces). (Joint work with Mischa Cotlar.)