Quasidiagonality and the hyperinvariant subspace problem

In a sequence of recent papers, 11], 13], 9] and 5], the authors (together with H. Bercovici and C. Foias) reduced the hyperinvariant subspace problem for operators on Hilbert space to the question whether every C ₀₀-(BCP)-contraction that is quasidiagonal and has spectrum the unit disc has a nontrivial hyperinvariant subspace (n.h.s.). An essential ingredient in this reduction was the introduction of two new equivalence relations, ampliation quasisimilarity and hyperquasisimilarity, defined below. This note discusses the question whether, by use of these relations, a further reduction of the hyperinvariant subspace problem to the much-studied class (N + K) (defined below) might be possible.