Estimates in the corona theorem and ideals of \(H^\infty\): a problem of T. Wolff. (Q1809904)

Let \(\mathbb D\) denote the unit disc in the complex plane, \(H^{\infty}\) the Hardy space of all bounded analytic functions on \(\mathbb D\) with the supremum norm \(\|\;\|_{\infty}\). In the present paper it is proved that given \(\delta\geq 0\), there exist finite Blaschke products \(f_1,f_2\in H^{\infty}\) satisfying \[ 2\geq | f_1(z)|+| f_2(z)|\geq\delta>0, \;\;z\in\mathbb D, \] such that for any \(g_1,g_2\in H^{\infty}\) satisfying \(f_1g_1 + f_2g_2 \equiv 1\), the estimate \(\| g_1\|_{\infty}\geq C\delta^{-2}\log(-\log\delta)\) holds, where \(C\) is an absolute constant. Further, it is shown that there exist functions \(f_1,f_2,f \in H^{\infty}\) such that \[ | f_1(z)|+| f_2(z)|\geq | f(z)|,\;\;z\in\mathbb D, \] but \(f^2\) does not belong to the ideal generated by \(f_1\) and \(f_2\), i.e., there are no functions \(g_1,g_2\in H^{\infty}\) such that \(f^2\equiv f_1g_1+f_2g_2.\) This gives a negative answer to a question posed by T. Wolff.