Similarity Problems and Completely Bounded Maps

These notes revolve around three similarity problems, appearing in three different contexts, but all dealing with the space B(H) of all bounded operators on a complex Hilbert space H. The first one deals with group representations, the second one with C* -algebras and the third one with the disc algebra. We describe them in detail in the introduction which follows. This volume is devoted to the background necessary to understand these three problems, to the solutions that are known in some ...