The polynomial cluster value problem (Q1706554)

This paper continues work on a weaker form of the corona theorem along the lines of \textit{I. J. Schark} [J. Math. Mech. 10, 735--746 (1961; Zbl 0139.30402)]. It is partly motivated by work of \textit{R. M. Aron} et al. [Math. Ann. 353, No. 2, 293--303 (2012; Zbl 1254.46057)] and more recent research of the first author with \textit{W. B. Johnson} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 143, No. 4, 1559--1568 (2015; Zbl 1314.32011)]. For a complex Banach space \(X\) with open unit ball \(B,\) let \(H(B)\) denote any unital subalgebra of \(H^\infty(B)\) containing \(X^\ast\). (Since \(H^\infty(B)\) is very large and unmanageable, typical choices of \(H(B)\) include the much smaller algebras \(A(B)\), the subalgebra generated by the constant functions and \(X^\ast\), and \(A_u(B),\) the subalgebra consisting of uniformly continuous holomorphic functions on \(B\).) \(M_{H(B)}\) denotes the set of multiplicative linear functionals on \(H(B)\). For a fixed \(f \in H(B)\), it is well known and standard that there is a canonical extension \(\tilde{f}\) to \(B^{\ast\ast}\). Given \(x_0^{\ast\ast} \in B^{\ast\ast}\), the polynomial cluster set of \(f\) at \(x_0^{\ast\ast}\) is defined as the set of accumulation points of \(f(x)\) as \(x \in B\) tends to \(x_0^{\ast\ast}\) in the polynomial star topology. In other words, the polynomial cluster set of \(f\) is the set \(Cl^{\mathcal P}_B(f,x_0^{\ast\ast} ) := \) \[ \{\lambda \in \mathbb C \mid \exists (x_\alpha) \subset B \text{ such that } P(x_\alpha) \to \tilde{P}(x_0^{\ast\ast})\; \text{ for all polynomials } P, \text{ and } f(x_\alpha) \to \lambda\}. \] Assuming that \(A_u(B) \subset H(B)\), let \(\pi^\mathcal{P}\) denote the restriction mapping \(M_{H(B)} \to M_{A_u(B)}\) and, for \(x_0^{\ast\ast} \in \overline{B^{\ast\ast}},\) the polynomial fiber of \(M_{H(B)}\) at \(x_0^{\ast\ast}\) be the set \[ M^{\mathcal P}_{x_0^{\ast\ast}}(H(B)) := {(\pi^{\mathcal{P}})^{-1}}(\delta_{x_0^{\ast\ast}}). \] This paper deals with the polynomial cluster set problem, viz., the question of whether \[ CL^{\mathcal P}_B(f,x_0^{\ast\ast}) = \hat{f}(M^{\mathcal P}_{x_0^{\ast\ast}}(H(B)))\text{ for all } f \in H(B). \] Equivalent conditions for this problem are given and the problem is discussed for \(X\) being a \(C(K)\) space.