Shift operators on harmonic Hilbert function spaces on real balls and von Neumann inequality

On harmonic function spaces, we define shift operators using zonal harmonics and partial derivatives, and develop their basic properties. These operators turn out to be multiplications by the coordinate variables followed by projections on harmonic subspaces. This duality gives rise to a new identity for zonal harmonics. We introduce large families of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of harmonic functions on the unit ball of Rⁿ and investigate the action of the shift operators on them. We prove a dilation result for a commuting row contraction which is also what we call harmonic type. As a consequence, we show that the norm of one of our spaces G˘ is maximal among those spaces with contractive norms on harmonic polynomials. We then obtain a von Neumann inequality for harmonic polynomials of a commuting harmonic-type row contraction. This yields the maximality of the operator norm of a harmonic polynomial of the shift on G˘ making this space a natural harmonic counterpart of the Drury-Arveson space.