Beurling Criteria for Reproducing Kernels

A classical theorem due to Beurling-Lax-Halmos characterizes the invariant subspaces of the unilateral shift as ranges of isometric multiplication operators acting on the Hardy space. The class of Beurling-Lax-Halmos (BLH) pairs of reproducing kernels is introduced, consisting of those pairs that admit an analogue of this theorem. The BLH class is, under varying hypotheses, characterized in several equivalent ways: dilation-theoretically, via a complete Leech interpolation property, and through a sums-of-squares-inspired Agler-style decomposition. These characterizations unify and extend a variety of related results in the literature. Examples are given to illustrate the theory, the hypotheses and compare and contrast with the recent developments in the study of complete Pick pairs. In particular, while it is anticipated, perhaps under some mild assumptions, that the class of complete Pick pairs of kernels is contained in the class of BLH pairs of kernels, it is shown that the reverse inclusion fails in a strong sense.