A spectral radius for matrices over an operator space

With every operator space structure $\mathcal{E}$ on $\mathbb{C}^d$, we associate a spectral radius function $\rho_{\mathcal{E}}$ on $d$-tuples of operators. For a $d$-tuple $X = (X_1, \ldots, X_d) \in M_n(\mathbb{C}^d)$ of matrices we show that $\rho_{\mathcal{E}}(X)<1$ if and only if $X$ is jointly similar to a tuple in the open unit ball of $M_n(\mathcal{E})$, that is, there is an invertible matrix $S$ such that $\|S^{-1}X S\|_{M_n(\mathcal{E})}<1$, where $S^{-1} X S =(S^{-1} X_1 S, \ldots, S^{-1} X_d S)$. When $\mathcal{E}$ is the row operator space, for example, our spectral radius coincides with the joint spectral radius considered by Bunce, Popescu, and others, and we recover the condition for a tuple of matrices to be simultaneously similar to a strict row contraction. When $\mathcal{E}$ is the minimal operator space $\min(\ell^\infty_d)$, our spectral radius $\rho_{\mathcal{E}}$ is related to the joint spectral radius considered by Rota and Strang but differs from it and has the advantage that $\rho_{\mathcal{E}}(X)<1$ if and only if $X$ is simultaneously similar to a tuple of strict contractions. We show that for a nc rational function $f$ with descriptor realization $(A,b,c)$, the spectral radius $\rho_{\mathcal{E}}(A)<1$ if and only the domain of $f$ contains a neighborhood of the noncommutative closed unit ball of the operator space dual $\mathcal{E}^*$ of $\mathcal{E}$.