Paths of inner-related functions (Q418698)

Let \(H^\infty\) be the space of bounded analytic functions in the unit disk \(\mathbb D\) with the sup-norm \(\|f\|_\infty=\sup_{z\in\mathbb D}|f(z)|\). Denote by \(\mathcal J^*\) (resp. \(CN^*\)) the open set in \(H^\infty\) of functions of the form \(f=uh\) (resp. \(f=bh\)), where \(h\in(H^\infty)^{-1}\) and \(u\) is an inner function (resp. \(b\) is a Calderon-Newman Blaschke product). Equivalently, \(\mathcal J^*\) is the set of functions in \(H^\infty\) the non-tangential limits of which on the unit circle are bounded away from zero, while \(CN^*\) consists of functions \(f\in H^\infty\) for which there are numbers \(0<r<1\) and \(c>0\) such that for any \(z\in\mathbb D\) the inequality \[ \sup\big\{|f(w)|: |w-z|<r(1-|z|)\big\}>c \] holds. The authors study the connected components of \(\mathcal J^*\) and \(CN^*\). In particular, it is shown that any component of \(\mathcal J^*\) intersects \(CN^*\) and, with the exception of finite Blaschke products, no inner function of the little Bloch space belongs to the closure of any such component. The main result of the paper is that every inner function can be connected with an element of \(CN^*\) within the set \(\mathcal J^*\). The proof shows that there is a universal constant \(N\) such that for any inner function \(u\) there is a polygonal path in \(\mathcal J^*\) of at most \(N\) segments that connects \(u\) with some element in \(CN^*\). The proof is constructive and makes use of a Carleson contour decomposition and a special discretization of harmonic measures. This provides a path in \(L^\infty(\partial\mathbb D)\) that can be lifted to \(\mathcal J^*\). Applications to Douglas algebras are provided.