Badly approximable unimodular functions in weighted \(L^p\) spaces (Q558485)

Given a weight \(w\) on the unit circle \(\mathbf T\), i.e., a nonnegative function from \(L^1(\mathbf T)\), the author studies approximations of a unimodular function \(u\), \(| u| =1\) a.e., in weighted spaces \(L^p(\mathbf T,w)\). A function \(u\) is called badly approximable in such a space if \(\| u+f\| _p \geq \| u\| _p\) for all \(f\in H^\infty\) with the standard norm in \(L^p(\mathbf T,w)\). The main result states that if \(u\) is badly approximable for all \(0<p<+\infty\) then \(\bar u\) is an inner function. The author describes the inner functions \(u\) and the weights \(w\) such that \(\bar u\) is badly approximable for all \(0<p<+\infty\). It turns out that given an inner function with this property, the class of corresponding weights \(w\) depends only on the zero set of \(u\). Namely, if \(B\) is the Blaschke product with simple zeros and the same zero set as \(u\), then \(\bar u\) is badly approximable for all \(0<p<+\infty\) if and only if \(\bar B\) is.