Positivity of Toeplitz operators via Berezin transform (Q488775): Difference between revisions

The positivity of Toeplitz operators on the Hardy and Bergman spaces is studied. The following main results are proved. Theorem 1. The Toeplitz operator \(T_\varphi\) with a symbol \(\varphi\in L^\infty(\partial{\mathbb D})\) is positive on the Hardy space \(H^2\) if and only if \(\varphi(t)\geq 0\) for almost all \(t\in\partial{\mathbb D}\). Theorem 2. Let \(\varphi\in L^\infty({\mathbb D})\) be a harmonic function. The Toeplitz operator \(T_\varphi\) is positive on the Bergman space \(L_a^2\) if and only if \(\varphi(z)\geq 0\) for all \(z\in{\mathbb D}\). In particular, this implies that for a harmonic function \(\varphi\in L^\infty({\mathbb D})\), the Toeplitz operator \(T_\varphi\) is positive on \(L_a^2\) if and only if the Berezin transform \(\widetilde{\varphi}(z)\geq 0\) for all \(z\in{\mathbb D}\). However, the above result is not true for general symbols in \(L^\infty({\mathbb D})\). Theorem 3. The positivity of Toeplitz operators on the Bergman space \(L_a^2\) is not completely determined by the positivity of the Berezin transform of their symbols. Further, the positivity of the Toeplitz operator \(T_f\) with the polynomial symbol \(f(z):=|z|^2+a|z|+b\), where \(a,b\in\mathbb R\), is studied. It is shown that if \(a\in\mathbb R\setminus(-2,-5/4)\), then \(T_f\) is positive on \(L_a^2\) if and only if the Berezin transform of the symbol \(\widetilde{f}(z)\) is a nonnegative function on \({\mathbb D}\). However, for each \(a\in(-14/9,-5/4)\subset(-2,-5/4)\), there exist some \(b\in{\mathbb R}\) and \(\delta>0\) such that \(\widetilde{f}(z)\geq\delta\) for all \(z\in{\mathbb D}\), but \(T_f\) is not positive on \(L_a^2\).