Unitary interpolants,factorization indices and infinite Hankel block matrices

The existence, uniqueness, and construction of unitary n × n matrix valued functions $\text{?(ζ) = ∑}{}_{\mathrm{j\; =\; ?\infty }}{}^{\mathrm{\infty }}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{ζ}{}^{\mathrm{j}}$ in Wiener-like algebras on the circle with prescribed matrix Fourier coefficients $\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{= γ}{}_{\mathrm{j}}$ for j ? 0 are studied. In particular, if $\text{Σ ¦γ}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{¦ < ∞}$, then such an ? exists with $\text{Σ ¦?}{}_{\mathrm{j}}\text{¦ < ∞}$ if and only if ∥Γ₀∥ ? 1, where Γ_v, denotes the infinite block Hankel matrix (γ_{j + k + v}), j, k = 0, 1,…, acting in the sequence space l_n². One of the main results is that the nonnegative factorization indices of every such ? are uniquely determined by the given data in terms of the dimensions of the kernels of $\text{I ? Γ}{}_{\mathrm{v}}{}^1\text{Γ}{}_{\mathrm{v}}$, whereas the negative factorization indices are arbitrary. It is also shown that there is a unique such ? if and only if the data forces all the factorization indices to be nonnegative and simple conditions for that and a formula for ? in terms of certain Schmidt pairs of Γ₀ are given. The results depend upon a fine analysis of the structure of the kernels of $\text{I ? Γ}{}_{\mathrm{v}}{}^1\text{Γ}{}_{\mathrm{v}}$ and of the one step extension problem of Adamjan, Arov, and Krein (Funct. Anal. Appl.2 (1968), 1–18). Isometric interpolants for the nonsquare case are also considered.