Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Let $T$ be a quadratic operator on a complex Hilbert space $H$ . We show that $T$ can be written as a product of two positive contractions if and only if $T$ is of the form
for some $a,\,b\,\in \,\left[ 0,\,1 \right]$ and strictly positive operator $P$ with $\left\| P \right\|\,\le \,\left| \sqrt{a}-\sqrt{b} \right|\sqrt{\left( 1-a \right)\left( 1-b \right)}$ . Also, we give a necessary condition for a bounded linear operator $T$ with operator matrix $\left( \begin{matrix} {{T}_{1}} & {{T}_{3}} \\ 0 & {{T}_{2}} \\ \end{matrix} \right)$ on $H\,\oplus \,K$ that can be written as a product of two positive contractions.