Nontangential limits in \(P^t(\mu )\)-spaces and the index of invariant subgroups (Q2389142)

Let \(\mu\) be a finite positive measure on the closed disk \(\overline{\mathbb D}\) in the complex plane, let \(1\leq t<\infty\) and let \(P^t(\mu)\) denote the closure of the analytic polynomials in \(L^t(\mu)\). Suppose that the open disk \(\mathbb D\) is the set of analytic bounded point evaluations for \(P^t(\mu)\), and that \(P^t(\mu)\) contains no nontrivial characteristic functions. It is then known that the restriction of \(\mu\) to \(\partial\mathbb D\) must be of the form \(h |dz|\). The main result of the present paper is that every function \(f\in P^t(\mu)\) has nontangential limits at \(h\, |dz|\)-almost every point of \(\partial\mathbb D\), and the resulting boundary function agrees with \(f\) as an element of \(L^t(h|dz|)\). The proof of this result combines methods from \textit{J.~E.~Thomson}'s proof of the existence of bounded point evaluation for \(P^t(\mu)\) whenever \(P^t(\mu)\neq L^t(\mu)\) [Ann. Math. (2) 133, No. 3, 477--507 (1991; Zbl 0736.41008)] with \textit{X.~Tolsa}'s recent results on analytic capacity [Acta Math. 190, No. 1, 105--149 (2003; Zbl 1060.30031)]. As a consequence, the authors show that, for \(1< t<\infty\), \(\dim {\mathcal M}/z{\mathcal M}=1\) for every nonzero invariant subspace \(\mathcal M\) of \(P^t(\mu)\) if and only if \(h\neq 0\). This result answers in the affirmative a conjecture of Conway and Yang. The authors also investigate the boundary behavior of the functions in \(P^t(\mu)\) near the point \(z\in\partial\mathbb D\) where \(h(z)=0\). In particular, for \(1< t<\infty\) it is shown that there are interpolating sequences for \(P^t(\mu)\) that accumulate nontangentially almost everywhere on \(\{z: h(z)=0\}\).