It is well known that a Schur-class function S (contractive operatorvalued function on the unit disk) can be realized as the transfer functionC D ] unitary). One method of proof of this result (the "lurking isometry" method) identifies a solution U of the problem as a unitary extension of a partially defined isometry V determined by the problem data. Reformulated in terms of the graphs of V and U , solutions are identified with embeddings of an isotropic subspace of a certain Kreȋn space K constructed from the problem data into a Lagrangian subspace (maximal isotropic subspace of K). The contribution here is the observation that this reformulation applies to other types of realization problems as well, e.g., realization of positive-real or J-contractive operatorvalued functions over the unit disk (respectively over the right half plane) as the transfer function of a discrete-time (respectively, continuous-time) conservative system, i.e., an input-state-output system for which there is a quadratic storage function on the state space for which all system trajectories satisfy an energy-balance equation with respect to the appropriate supply rate on input-output pairs. The approach allows for unbounded state dynamics, unbounded input/output operators and descriptor-type state-space representations where needed in a systematic way. These results complement recent results of Arov-Nudelman, Hassi-de Snoo-Tsekanovskiȋ, Belyi-Tsekanovskiȋ and Staffans and fit into the behavioral frameworks of Trentelman-Willems and Georgiou-Smith.
Mathematics Subject Classification (2000). Primary: 93B28; Secondary: 47A20, 47A48, 93C20.