Bounds on the norm of the backward shift and related operators in Hardy and Bergman spaces (Q1746517)

The paper under review addresses the question of estimating the norm of the backward shift operator \(B\) on the Hardy-Banach space \(H^p\) of the open unit disc \(\mathbb{D}\) for \( 1 \leqslant p \leqslant \infty\). Recall that \(B\) is given by \(Bf=\frac{f-f(0)}{z}\), \(f \in H^p\). Since \(|f(0)|\) is at most \(\|f\|\), the \(H^p\)-norm of \(B\), denoted here by \(\|B\|_p\), is bounded above by \(2\). In the case \(p=2\), \(B\) being the Hilbert space adjoint of an isometry, \(\|B\|_2\) is exactly \(1\). Further, \[ \|B\|_p \leqslant \begin{cases} 2^{\frac{2-p}{p}} & \text{if}~1 \leqslant p \leqslant 2, \\ 2^{\frac{p-2}{p}} & \text{if}~2 \leqslant p \leqslant \infty. \end{cases} \] However, this does not estimate the norms \(\|B\|_1\) and \(\|B\|_{\infty}\). One of the main results of this paper shows that \(\|B\|_1 < 2\), while \(\|B\|_{\infty}=2\). The author also discusses the above problem for Bergman spaces of analytic and harmonic functions.