Positivity of Toeplitz operators via Berezin transform (Q488775)

The positivity of Toeplitz operators on the Hardy and Bergman spaces is studied. The following main results are proved. Theorem 1. The Toeplitz operator \(T_\varphi\) with a symbol \(\varphi\in L^\infty(\partial{\mathbb D})\) is positive on the Hardy space \(H^2\) if and only if \(\varphi(t)\geq 0\) for almost all \(t\in\partial{\mathbb D}\). Theorem 2. Let \(\varphi\in L^\infty({\mathbb D})\) be a harmonic function. The Toeplitz operator \(T_\varphi\) is positive on the Bergman space \(L_a^2\) if and only if \(\varphi(z)\geq 0\) for all \(z\in{\mathbb D}\). In particular, this implies that for a harmonic function \(\varphi\in L^\infty({\mathbb D})\), the Toeplitz operator \(T_\varphi\) is positive on \(L_a^2\) if and only if the Berezin transform \(\widetilde{\varphi}(z)\geq 0\) for all \(z\in{\mathbb D}\). However, the above result is not true for general symbols in \(L^\infty({\mathbb D})\). Theorem 3. The positivity of Toeplitz operators on the Bergman space \(L_a^2\) is not completely determined by the positivity of the Berezin transform of their symbols. Further, the positivity of the Toeplitz operator \(T_f\) with the polynomial symbol \(f(z):=|z|^2+a|z|+b\), where \(a,b\in\mathbb R\), is studied. It is shown that if \(a\in\mathbb R\setminus(-2,-5/4)\), then \(T_f\) is positive on \(L_a^2\) if and only if the Berezin transform of the symbol \(\widetilde{f}(z)\) is a nonnegative function on \({\mathbb D}\). However, for each \(a\in(-14/9,-5/4)\subset(-2,-5/4)\), there exist some \(b\in{\mathbb R}\) and \(\delta>0\) such that \(\widetilde{f}(z)\geq\delta\) for all \(z\in{\mathbb D}\), but \(T_f\) is not positive on \(L_a^2\).