UC Santa Barbara

In this work we study the problem of writing a Hermitian polynomial as a Hermitian sum of squares modulo a Hermitian ideal. We investigate a novel idea of Putinar-Scheiderer to obtain necessary matrix positivity conditions for Hermitian polynomials to be Hermitian sums of squares modulo Hermitian ideals. We show that the conditions are sufficient for a class of examples making a connection to the operator-valued Riesz-Fejer theorem and block Toeplitz forms. The work fits into the larger themes of Hermitian versions of Hilbert's 17-th problem and characterizations of positivity.