A theorem of Brown-Halmos type for dual truncated Toeplitz operators (Q2175491)

The paper proves necessary and sufficient conditions for the commutativity of the product of two dual truncated Toeplitz operators for the unit disk. A truncated dual Toeplitz operator \(D_f\) is defined as \(x\in (K_u^2)^\perp\mapsto D_f\,x=(I-P_u)(fx)\in (K_u^2)^\perp\) where \(K_u^2=H^2\ominus u H^2\) with \(u\) a nonconstant inner function and \(P_u\) the orthogonal projection on \(K_u^2\). Note that \(D^*_f=D_{\overline{f}}\). The main result of the paper is a Brown-Halmos type theorem saying that \(D_fD_g=D_gD_f\) if and only if there is a constant \(\lambda\) such that one of the following three conditions holds: (1) \(f,g,(u-\lambda)\overline{f},(u-\lambda)\overline{g}\) are all in \(H^2\), or (2) \(\overline{f},\overline{g},(u-\lambda)f,(u-\lambda)g\) are all in \(H^2\), or (3) a nontrivial linear combination of \(f\) and \(g\) is constant.