We give an alternative proof to Agler's famous result on success of rational dilation on an annulus by an application of a result due to Dritschel and McCullough. We show interplay between operators associated with an annulus, $C_{ 1,r}$ or quantum annulus and operator pairs living on a certain variety in $\mathbb C^2$ and its intersection with the biball. It is shown that the minimal spectral sets and von Neumann's inequality for these classes $C_{ 1,r}$, quantum annulus can also be studied via appropriate operator pairs associated with the biball.
Categories: math.FA math.CV math.OA