We present some general theorems about operator algebras that are algebras of functions on sets, including theories of local algebras, residually finite-dimensional operator algebras and algebras that can be represented as the scalar multipliers of a vector-valued reproducing kernel Hilbert space. We use these to further develop a quantized function theory for various domains that extends and unifies Agler's theory of commuting contractions and the Arveson-Drury-Popescu theory of commuting row contractions. We obtain analogous factorization theorems, prove that the algebras that we obtain are dual operator algebras and show that for many domains, supremums over all commuting tuples of operators satisfying certain inequalities are obtained over all commuting tuples of matrices.

Abstract. We give a short direct proof of Agler's factorization theorem that uses the Blecher-Ruan-Sinclair characterization of operator algebras. The key ingredient of this proof is an operator algebra factorization theorem. Our proof provides some additional information about these factorizations in the case of polynomials.

This paper proves two theorems. The first of these simplifies and lends clarity to the previous characterizations of the invariant subspaces of S, the operator of multiplication by the coordinate function z, on L 2 (T; C n ), where T is the unit circle, by characterizing the invariant subspaces of S n on scalar valued L p (0 < p ≤ ∞) thereby eliminating range functions and partial isometries. It also gives precise conditions as to when the operator shall be a pure shift and describes the precise nature of the wandering vectors and the doubly invariant subspaces. The second theorem describes the contractively contained Hilbert spaces in L p that are simply invariant under S n thereby generalizing the first theorem.