Representations of Hardy Algebras: Absolute Continuity, Intertwiners and Superharmonic Operators

Abstract

Suppose $\mathcal{T}_{+}(E)$ is the tensor algebra of a $W^{*}$-correspondence $E$ and $H^{\infty}(E)$ is the associated Hardy algebra. We investigate the problem of extending completely contractive representations of $\mathcal{T}_{+}(E)$ on a Hilbert space to ultra-weakly continuous completely contractive representations of $H^{\infty}(E)$ on the same Hilbert space. Our work extends the classical Sz.-Nagy - Foiaş functional calculus and more recent work by Davidson, Li and Pitts on the representation theory of Popescu's noncommutative disc algebra.