One-component inner functions (Q518596)

The goal of this paper is to provide explicit examples of the so-called one-component inner functions. An inner function \(u\) in \(H^{\infty}(\mathbb{D})\), where \(\mathbb{D}\) is the unit disc in the complex plane, is said to be a \textit{one-component} inner function if there is some \(\eta\in (0,1)\) such that the filled level set \(\Omega_{u}(\eta)=\{z\in \mathbb{D}: |u(z)|<\eta\}\) is connected. One-component inner functions, the collection of which will be denoted by \(\mathfrak{J}_{c}\), play an important role in operator theory. As first simple examples of inner functions in the class \(\mathfrak{J}_{c}\), finite Blaschke products and the atomic singular function \(S(z)=\exp\left(-\frac{1+z}{1-z}\right)\) are presented in the paper. Let \(\rho(z,w)\) be the pseudohyperbolic distance in \(\mathbb{D}\) between \(z\), \(w\) and write \(D_{\rho}(z_{0},r)=\{z\in\mathbb{D}:\rho (z,z_{0})<r\}\). Recall that a Blaschke product \(B\) is said to be an \textit{interpolating Blaschke product} if the zero set of \(B\) is an interpolating sequence for \(H^{\infty}\). In the paper under review, a large class of interpolating Blaschke products in \(\mathfrak{J}_{c}\) is given by the following result: \(\bullet\) \textit{Let \(B\) be an interpolating Blaschke product with zero set \(\{z_{n}:n\in\mathbb{N}\}\). Suppose that for some \(\sigma\in (0,1)\) the set \(G=\bigcup\limits_{n}D_{\rho}(z_{n},\sigma)\) is connected. Then \(B\in\mathfrak{J}_{c}\).} The hypothesis in the previous result are satisfied, for instance, if \(B\) is a Blaschke product with increasing real zeros \(x_{n}\) such that \(0<\eta_{1}\leq\rho (x_{n},x_{n+1})\leq \eta_{2}<1\), or in the case that \(B\) has zeros \(\{z_{n}\}\) which are separated, contained in a Stolz angle and satisfying \(\rho(z_{n},z_{n+1})\leq\eta <1\). In relation to the product of inner functions in the class \(\mathfrak{J}_{c}\), it is proved in the paper that, if \(B\) is a finite Blaschke product or an interpolating Blaschke product with real zeros clustering at \(1\), then \(BS\in\mathfrak{J}_{c}\). More generally, it is shown that the product of two inner functions in \(\mathfrak{J}_{c}\) belongs to \(\mathfrak{J}_{c}\). As far as the composition is concerned, it is proved that if \(B\) is a finite Blaschke product then \(S\circ B\in \mathfrak{J}_{c}\) and \(B\circ u\in\mathfrak{J}_{c}\) for each \(u\in\mathfrak{J}_{c}\). In any case the set of one-component inner functions is big enough since it is shown in the paper that \(\mathfrak{J}_{c}\) is an open set inside the set of all inner functions, with respect to the uniform norm topology. Moreover, within the class of singular inner functions, in \(\mathfrak{J}_{c}\) all singular functions with finite spectrum are found in the paper. Finally, a class of Blaschke products that are not one-component inner functions is described in the paper as follows: Recall that a Blaschke product \(B\) is called \textit{thin} if its zero-sequence \(\{z_{n}\}\) satisfies: \[ \lim_{n}\prod_{k\neq n}\rho(z_{k},z_{n})=\lim_{n}(1-|z_{n}|^{2}) |B'(z_{n})|=1. \] Then the following result is proved in the paper: \(\bullet\) \textit{Thin Blaschke products are not one-component inner functions and no finite product of thin interpolating Blaschke products belongs to \(\mathfrak{J}_{c}\).}