On polynomially bounded operators acting on a Banach space

By the Von Neumann inequality every contraction on a Hilbert space is polynomially bounded. A simple example shows that this result does not extend to Banach space contractions. In this paper, we give general conditions under which an arbitrary Banach space contraction is polynomially bounded. These conditions concern the thinness of the spectrum and the behaviour of the resolvent or the sequence of negative powers. To do this we use techniques from harmonic analysis, in particular, results concerning thin sets such as Helson sets, Kronecker sets and sets that satisfy spectral synthesis.