Approximation in the mean on rational curves (Q2154497)

For a positive Borel measure \(\mu\), compactly supported on the complex plane and without point masses, a theorem of Thomson, subsequently generalized to rational functions by Brennan, states that the closure \(P^2(\mu)\) in \(L^2(\mu)\) of the polynomials in one complex variable is different from \(L^2(\mu)\) if and only if there exist analytic bounded point evaluations. Now, given a complex affine curve \(\mathcal{V} \in \mathbb{C}^n\) and a positive Borel measure \(\mu\) supported by a compact subset \(K\) of \(\mathcal{V}\), the goal of the paper is to establish conditions that ensure the validity of Thomson's Theorem on algebraic curves \(\mathcal{V}\), thus relating the density of polynomials in Lebesgue \(L^2\)-space to the existence of analytic bounded point evaluations. Analogues to the complex plane results of Thomson and Brennan on rational curves are also obtained.