Decomposable multiplication operators on \(H^\infty+C\) (Q1289288)

A bounded linear operator \(T\) on a Banach space \(X\) is said to be decomposable if for every open covering \(U\cup V={\mathbb C}\), there exists \(T\)-invariant closed linear subspaces \(X, Y\subset X\), \(X=Y+Z\), such that the spectrum \(\sigma (T|Y)\) of \(T\) restricted to \(Y\) is contained in \(U\) and also \(\sigma (T|Z)\subset V\). Given a commutative Banach algebra \(A\), let \(A_{\text{dec}}\) denote the set of all \(a\in A\) which are decomposable, meaning that the associated multiplication operator \(T_a: A\to A\), \(f\to af\) \((a\in A)\), is decomposable. It is known that for semisimple \(A\) the greatest its regular subalgebra \(A_{\text{reg}}\) is contained in \(A_{\text{dec}}\). It remains an open question whether always \(A_{\text{reg}}=A_{\text{dec}}\). The author shows the multiplication operator \(T_f: g\to f g\) is decomposable on \(H^{\infty}({\mathbb T})+{\mathbb C}({\mathbb T})\) if and only if \(f\) is quasi-continuous. Using this result, he obtains the equality \(A_{\text{reg}}=A_{\text{dec}}\) to arbitrary Douglas algebras \(A\).