Weighted model spaces and Schmidt subspaces of Hankel operators

For a bounded Hankel matrix $\Gamma$, we describe the structure of the Schmidt subspaces of $\Gamma$, namely the eigenspaces of $\Gamma^* \Gamma$ corresponding to non zero eigenvalues. We prove that these subspaces are in correspondence with weighted model spaces in the Hardy space on the unit circle. More precisely, every such subspace can be described as the range of an isometric multiplier acting on a model space. Further, we obtain similar results for Hankel operators acting in the Hardy space on the real line. Finally, we give a streamlined proof of the Adamyan-Arov-Krein theorem using the language of weighted model spaces.