Boundary Gauss-Lucas type theorems on the disk (Q2330799)

The classical Gauss--Lucas theorem says that, given a non-constant polynomial \(P\), the set of the zeros of its derivative \(P'\) is contained in the convex hull of the set of zeros of \(P\). This fact admits a certain ``hyperbolic'' analogue which was found by Walsh and that tells us that given a finite Blaschke product \(B\), the set of zeros of \(B'\) is contained in the hyperbolic convex hull of the set of zeros of \(B\). In the present paper, the author elaborates on Walsh's theorem by moving from finite Blaschke products to infinite ones as well as to generic inner functions and still further to more general analytic self-maps of the disk and he studies Gauss--Lucas type phenomena in these cases. We recall that every inner function \(\theta\) in the unit disk \(\mathbb{D}\) of the complex plane can be factored canonically as \(\theta=\lambda BS\) where \(\lambda\in \mathbb{C}\), \(|\lambda|=1\), \(B\) is a Blaschke product and \(S\) is a singular inner function. If \(\{a_{j}\}\subset\mathbb{D}\) is the set of zeros of \(B\) and \(\mu\) is the singular measure on \(\mathbb{T}=\partial\mathbb{D}\) associated to \(S\), the \textit{boundary spectrum} \(\sigma(\theta)\) of \(\theta\) is the set \(\mathbb{T}\cap \operatorname{clos}(\{a_{j}\})\cap \operatorname{supp}(\mu)\), i.e., the set of boundary singularities of \(\theta\). The functions \(f\) that admit a factorization of the form \(f = \theta F\), with \(\theta\) inner and \(F\) an outer function, are the functions lying in the Smirnov class \(\mathcal{N}^{+}\). So, any function \(f\) in \(\mathcal{N}^{+}\) can be canonically factored as \(f=BSF\) and one will use the notation \(\operatorname{inn}(f)\) for the inner factor of \(f\), that is the function \(BS\). The Gauss-Lucas theorem in this context establishes a relationship between the smallness set of \(\operatorname{inn}(\theta')\) and that of \(\theta\). More precisely, the smallness of an inner function can be measured by the boundary spectrum and one gets as a result that \(\sigma(\operatorname{inn}\theta')=\sigma(\theta)\). Going beyond and considering functions \(f\) in the class \(\mathcal{N}^{+}\), the things are more complicated and one needs to introduce ``essentially boundary'' points for a set in \(\mathbb{T}\). Before stating the results let us recall that a unit-norm function \(f\in H^{\infty}\) is said to possess an \textit{angular derivative} at a point \(\zeta\in\mathbb{T}\) if both \(f\) and \(f'\) have nontangential limits at \(\zeta\) and \(|f(\zeta)|=1\). Further given a point \(z\in\mathbb{D}\), we shall denote by \(\omega_{z}\) the \textit{harmonic measure} associated with it. Finally, a sequence \(\{z_{j}\}\subset \mathbb{D}\) is termed \textit{thick} if \[ \lim_{k\to\infty}\prod_{j: j\ne k}\left| \frac{z_{j}-z_{k}}{1-\overline{z}_{j}z_{k}}\right|\ne 1. \] Now, suppose that \(\mathcal{E}\) is a measurable subset of \(\mathbb{T}\) and \(f\) is a bounded analytic function with \(f'\in\mathcal{N}^{+}\). Further let \(\operatorname{inn}(f) = BS\), where \(B\) is a Blaschke product and \(S\) a singular inner function. We then write \[ \sigma^{i}_{\mathcal{E}} ( B ) : = \sigma(B)\cap \operatorname{ess\, int} \mathcal{E}, \] where \(\operatorname{ess\,int}\mathcal{E}\) is the essential interior of \(\mathcal{E}\). Also, we shall denote by \(\sigma^{b}_{\mathcal{E},f}(B)\) the set of points \(\zeta\in \mathbb{T}\setminus \operatorname{ess\,int}\mathcal{E}\) with the following property: there exists a thick sequence \(\{z_{n}\}\) formed with zeros of \(B\) with \(z_{n}\to\zeta\) satisfying \[ \text{(I)}\qquad \omega_{z_{n}}(\widetilde{\mathcal{E}})\log \frac{1}{1-|z_{n}|}\to 0, \] where \(\widetilde{\mathcal{E}}=\mathbb{T}\setminus \mathcal{E}\), and \[ \text{(II)}\qquad\int_{\widetilde{\mathcal{E}}}\log |f'|\,d\omega_{z_{n}}\to 0. \] Finally, we put \[ \sigma_{\mathcal{E}}(f)= \sigma(S)\cup \sigma^{i}_{\mathcal{E}}(B)\cup \sigma^{b}_{\mathcal{E},f}(B). \] With these notations the following result is proved. \begin{itemize} \item Let \(f\in H^{\infty}\) be a nonconstant function with \(\|f\|_{\infty}=1\), and let \(\mathcal{E}\) be a measurable subset of \(\mathbb{T}\) such that \(f\) has an angular derivative almost everywhere on \(\mathcal{E}\). Suppose that each of the three factors in the canonical factorization of \(f\) has its derivative in \(\mathcal{N}^{+}\) (whence also \(f'\in\mathcal{N}^{+}\)). Assume, finally, that \(\sigma_{\mathcal{E}}(f)\ne \emptyset\). Then \(f'\) has a nontrivial inner factor, say \(J\) with \(\sigma(J)\supset \sigma_{\mathcal{E}}(f)\). The following corollary deals with the situation where \(\sigma(B)\) is contained in \(\operatorname{ess\,int}\mathcal{E}\), in which case we have \[ \sigma^{i}_{\mathcal{E}}(B)=\sigma(B),\; \sigma^{b}_{\mathcal{E},f}(B)=\emptyset \] and \[ \sigma_{\mathcal{E}}(f)=\sigma(B)\cup \sigma(S)=\sigma(BS). \] \item Let \(f\in H^{\infty}\) be a nonconstant function with \(\|f\|_{\infty}=1\), and let \(\mathcal{E}\) be a measurable subset of \(\mathbb{T}\) such that \(f\) has an angular derivative almost everywhere on \(\mathcal{E}\). Suppose that each of the three factors in the canonical factorization of \(f\) has its derivative in \(\mathcal{N}^{+}\). Assume, finally, that \(\sigma(BS)\ne\emptyset\), while \(\sigma(B)\subset \operatorname{ess\,int}\mathcal{E}\). Then \(J:=\operatorname{inn}(f')\) is a nontrivial inner function and \(\sigma(BS)\subset\sigma(J)\). In the special case \(\mathcal{E}=\mathbb{T}\), this reduces to the following result. \item Let \(\theta\) be a nonconstant inner function, other than a Möbius transformation, with \(\theta'\in\mathcal{N}^{+}\) Then \(\mathcal{J}:=\operatorname{inn} (\theta')\) is a nontrivial inner function and \(\sigma(\theta)=\sigma(\mathcal{J})\). As another consequence one obtains a simple sufficient condition for \(\operatorname{inn}(f')\) to be nontrivial when \(\mathcal{E}\) is taken to be an arc. In what follows \(\mathcal{A}\) denotes the disk algebra \(H^{\infty}\cap \mathcal{C}(\mathbb{T})\): \item Let \(\mathcal{E}=\{e^{it}:0\le t\le t_{0}\}\), where \(0<t_{0}\le\pi\), and let \(F\in H^{\infty}\) be an outer function such that \(\|F\|_{\infty}=1\), \(F'\in\mathcal{A}\), and \(|F|=1\) on \(\mathcal{E}\). Further, suppose \(\{z_{n}\}\subset\mathbb{D}\) is a thick sequence with the properties that \(\operatorname{Im}_{z_{n}}>0\) (\(n\in\mathbb{N}\)), \(\lim_{n\to\infty}z_{n}=1\) and \[ \sum_{n} \frac{1-|z_{n}|^{2}}{|1-z_{n}|^{2}}<\infty. \] Finally, assume that the Blaschke product \(B=B_{\{z_{n}\}}\) satisfies \(B'\in\mathcal{N}^{+}\) and put \(f:=BF\). Then \(f'\) lies in \(\mathcal{N}^{+}\) and has a nontrivial inner factor, \(J\), with \(1\in \sigma(J)\). \end{itemize} At the end, one shows by means of two examples that conditions (I) and (II) that appear in the first result via the definition of \(\sigma_{\mathcal{E}}(f)\) are indispensable and close to being sharp.