Hyperbolic geometry on noncommutative polyballs

This paper is an introduction to the hyperbolic geometry of noncommutative polyballs Bn(H) in B(H)n1+⋯+nk, where n=(n1,…,nk)∈Nk and B(H) is the algebra of all bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space H. We use the theory of free pluriharmonic functions on polyballs and noncommutative Poisson kernels on tensor products of full Fock spaces to define hyperbolic type metrics on Bn(H), study their properties, and obtain hyperbolic versions of Schwarz-Pick lemma for free holomorphic functions on polyballs. As a consequence, the polyballs can be viewed as noncommutative hyperbolic spaces. When specialized to the regular polydisk Dk(H) (which corresponds to the case n1=⋯=nk=1), our hyperbolic metric δH is complete and invariant under the group Aut(Dk) of all free holomorphic automorphisms of Dk(H), and the δH-topology induced on Dk(H) is the usual operator norm topology. The restriction of δH to the scalar polydisk Dk is equivalent to the Kobayashi distance on Dk. Most of the results of this paper are presented in the more general setting of Harnack (resp. Poisson) parts of the closed polyball Bn(H)−.