Spectral sets and operator radii

Abstract

We study different operator radii of homomorphisms from an operator algebra into $B(H)$ and show that these can be computed explicitly in terms of the usual norm. As an application, we show that if $\Omega$ is a $K$-spectral set for a Hilbert space operator, then it is a $M$-numerical radius set, where $M=\frac{1}{2}(K+K^{-1})$. This is a counterpart of a recent result of Davidson, Paulsen and Woerdeman. More general results for operator radii associated with the class of operators having $\rho$-dilations in the sense of Sz.-Nagy and Foias are given. A version of a result of Drury concerning the joint numerical radius of non-commuting $n$-tuples of operators is also obtained.