Boundary vs. interior conditions associated with weighted composition operators (Q2248492)

Let \(h^{\infty}\) be the space of bounded harmonic functions on the open unit disk \(\mathbb{D}\) and let \(H^{\infty}\) be the space of analytic functions on \(\mathbb{D}\). For \(f\in h^{\infty}\), \(f^*\) is defined on the boundary \(\partial \mathbb{D}\) of \(\mathbb{D}\) as \(\displaystyle f^*(e^{i\theta}) =\lim_{r\rightarrow} f(r e^{i\theta})\). It is well known that \(L^{\infty}(\partial\mathbb{D}) = \{f^*: f\in h^{\infty}\}\). If \(u\in H^{\infty}\) and \(\varphi\) is an analytic self-map of \(\mathbb{D}\), then \(M_{u}C_{\varphi}f=u(f\circ \varphi)\) defines a weighted composition operator on \(H^{\infty}\). For \(u\in L^{\infty}(\partial\mathbb{D})\), the weighted composition operator \(M_{u}C_{\varphi}\) on \(h^{\infty}\) is defined as \[ (M_{u}C_{\varphi}f)(z)=\int_{\partial\mathbb{D}}u(\zeta)(f\circ\varphi)^*(\zeta)P_{z}(\zeta)\, dm(\zeta), \] where \(P_{z}\) is the Poisson kernel for the point \(z\in\mathbb{D}\) and \(m\) is the normalized Lebesgue measure on \(\partial\mathbb{D}\). The authors prove that the interior and boundary conditions on the weight functions \(u, \varphi\) on \(\partial\mathbb{D}\) and \(\mathbb{D}\) for compactness of weighted composition operator \(M_{u}C_{\varphi}\) are equivalent, where \(u\in L^{\infty}(\partial\mathbb{D})\). Also, they prove the equivalence between the conditions on \(\mathbb{D}\) and \(\partial\mathbb{D}\) for the compactness of \(C_{\varphi}-C_{\psi}\). In the second part of this paper, the authors consider the weight functions \(u, v\) in \(H^{\infty}\). They prove that the compactness of \(M_{u}C_{\varphi}\) on \(h^{\infty}\) and on \(H^{\infty}\) are equivalent, and that the compactness of the difference \(M_{u}C_{\varphi} -M_{v}C_{\psi}\) on \(h^{\infty}\) and on \(H^{\infty}\) are equivalent. In the last part of this paper, the authors consider the essential norm of a bounded linear operator \(T\) on \(h^{\infty}\) which is defined by \[ \|T\|_{h^{\infty}, e}=\inf \{\|T-K\|: K \text{ is compact on}\,\, h^{\infty}\}. \] The authors give another proof of the estimate for the essential norm \(\|C_{\varphi}-C_{\psi}\|_{h^{\infty}, e}\) obtained in [\textit{J. S. Choa} et al., Integral Equations Oper. Theory 61, No. 2, 167--186 (2008; Zbl 1155.47027)], namely, if \(\varphi\) and \(\psi\) are analytic self-maps of \(\mathbb{D}\), then the value \(\|C_{\varphi}-C_{\psi}\|_{h^{\infty}, e}\) takes either \(0\) or \(1\) or \(\lambda_{\infty}(\varphi, \psi)\), where \[ \lambda_{\infty}(\varphi, \psi) = \limsup_{\|(\varphi\psi)(z)\| \rightarrow 1} \|P_{\varphi(z)} - P_{\psi(z)}\|_{1}. \]