Essential norm of the difference of weighted composition operators (Q2479539)

The authors consider Banach spaces of the form \[ H^{\infty}_v:=\{f\in H(D):\|f\|_v=\sup_{z\in D}{v(z)|f(z)|}<\infty\}, \] where \(D\) is the open unit disk and \(v(z)=v(|z|)\) is continuous and decreasing with respect to \(|z|.\) They are interested in bounded weighted composition operators of the form \(\psi C_\phi:H^{\infty}_v\to H^{\infty}_w,\) where \(\phi\) is an analytic self map of \(D\) and \(\psi\) is analytic, i.e., \(\psi \in H(D).\) The essential norm of \(\|T\|_e\) is the distance of \(T\) to the compact operators. The authors charaterize \(\|\psi_1C_{\phi_1}- \psi_2C_{\phi_2}\|_e,\) when \(v\) satisfies the Lusky condition found in [\textit{W.\,Lusky}, J.~Lond.\ Math.\ Soc., II.\ Ser.\ 51, No.\,2, 309--320 (1995; Zbl 0823.46025)] and coincides with its associated weight \(\overline v.\) The Bloch-type spaces \[ B_p:=\{f\in H(D):\sup_{z\in D}{v_p(z)|f^{\prime}(z)|}<\infty\}, \] with \(\|f\|_p=\|f^{\prime}\|_{v_p}\), where \(0<p<\infty\) and \(v_p(z)=(1-|z|^p),\) are Banach spaces if functions differing by a constant are identified. By taking advantage that the map \(S_p:B_p \to H^{\infty}_{v_p}\) defined by \(S(f)=f^{\prime}\) is an isometry onto, the authors are able to characterize \(\|C_{\phi_1}- C_{\phi_2}\|_e\) whenever \(C_{\phi_1}\) and \(C_{\phi_2}\) are bounded from \(B_p\) into itself and \(\max\{\|\phi_1\|,\|\phi_2\|\}=1.\) The authors generalize results in several papers, among them, [\textit{P.\,J.\thinspace Nieminen}, Comput.\ Methods Funct.\ Theory 7, No.\,2, 325--344 (2007; Zbl 1146.47016), see the following review].\ A related work is [\textit{T.\,Hosokawa} and \textit{K.\,Izuchi}, J.~Math.\ Soc.\ Japan 57, No.\,3, 669--690 (2005; Zbl 1100.47022)].