Finite rank perturbations of Toeplitz operators (Q2476167)

The author studies finite rank perturbations of Brown--Halmos type results involving products of Toeplitz operators \(T_fT_g\) acting on the Bergman space \(L_a^2({\mathbb D})\). Suppose that \(f=f_1+\overline{f_2}\), \(g=g_1+\overline{g_2}\), and \(h=h_1+\overline{h_2}\) are bounded harmonic functions on \({\mathbb D}\) such that \(h_1,h_2\in H^\infty({\mathbb D})\). If \(T_fT_g=T_{h^n}+F\), where \(F=\sum_{j=1}^N x_j \otimes y_j\) is of finite rank \(N\), if \(x_j,y_j\in L_a^2({\mathbb D})\) for all \(j=1,\dots,N\), and if \(n,N\in{\mathbb N}\), then (i) \(g_1(z)\overline{f_2(z)}-h^n(z)\) is harmonic; (ii) \(f(z)g(z)=h^n(z)+(1-| z| ^2)^2\sum_{j=1}^N x_j(z)\overline{y_j(z)}\) for all \(z\in{\mathbb D}\). Conversely, suppose that \(f=f_1+\overline{f_2}\), \(g=g_1+\overline{g_2}\), and \(h=h_1+\overline{h_2}\) are bounded harmonic functions on \({\mathbb D}\) such that (i) holds. If there exist nonzero functions \(x_1,\dots,x_N, y_1,\dots,y_N\in L_a^2({\mathbb D})\) such that (ii) holds, then \(T_fT_g=T_{h^n}+F\), where \(F=\sum_{j=1}^N x_j\otimes y_j\) is a finite rank operator. In particular, condition (ii) implies that \(fg=h^n\) a.e.\ on \(\partial{\mathbb D}\). If, in addition, \(T_{h^n}+F\) is an isometry, then \(\| h\| _{L^\infty({\mathbb D})}=\| h\| _{L^\infty(\partial{\mathbb D})}=\| fg\| _{L^\infty(\partial{\mathbb D})}=1\). Some corollaries of these results are also proved.