Adjoints of composition operators with rational symbol (Q2474965)

The main objective of the paper is to give an explicit formula that represents the adjoint \(C_\varphi^*\) of a composition operator \(C_\varphi\) on the Hardy space \(H^2\) whenever \(\varphi\) is a non-constant rational map that takes \(\mathbb D\) into itself. This also corrects a similar formula of \textit{C.\,C.\thinspace Cowen} and \textit{E.\,A.\thinspace Gallardo--Gutierrez} [J.~Funct.\ Anal.\ 238, 447--462 (2006; Zbl 1106.47023)]. The main result of the paper under review is the following: \[ C_\varphi^*f(z)=\sum \psi(z)f(\sigma(z))+ \frac{f(0)}{1-\overline{\varphi(\infty)}z}, \] where \(\sigma\) is the multiple-valued function \(1/\,\overline{\varphi^{-1}(1/\overline z)}\), \(\displaystyle\Psi(z)=\frac{z\sigma'(z)}{\sigma(z)}\) and \(\varphi(\infty)=\lim_{| z| \to \infty}\varphi(z)\). Here the summation is taken over all branches of \(\sigma\). The authors also give several examples showing that the Cowen/Gallardo--Gutierrez formula is not true in many cases.