Duality, tangential interpolation, and Töplitz corona problems (Q607770)

The classical corona problem asks whether the set of point evaluations, for points in the open unit disk \(\mathbb D\), is dense in the maximal ideal space of \(H^\infty\). A famous result of L.\,Carleson shows that they are dense. Let \(\mathcal A\) be an abelian Banach algebra and let \(M\) be its maximal ideal space. A subset \(X\) of \(M\) is dense in \(M\) if and only if, for any finite set of functions \(f_1,\hdots,f_n\) such that \(\sum_{j=1}^n|f_j(x)|^2\geq \delta^2>0\) for \(x\in X\), there exists a set \(g_1,\hdots,g_n\in \mathcal{A}\) such that \(f_1g_1+\cdots+f_ng_n=1\). \textit{W. Arveson} [J. Funct. Anal. 20, 208--233 (1975; Zbl 0309.46053)] studied a related problem, replacing \(\sum_{j=1}^n |f_j(x)|^2\geq \delta^2\) by the operator theoretic condition \(\sum_{j=1}^n T_{f_j}T_{f_j}^*\geq \delta^2 I\), where \(T_f\) is the Toeplitz operator with symbol \(f\) acting on the Hardy space \(H^2\). Arveson showed that, under this assumption, there exists a set \(g_1,\hdots,g_n\in H^\infty\) such that \(\sum_{j=1}^n f_jg_j=1\) and \(\sum_{j=1}^n |g_j(z)|^2\leq \delta^{-2}\). In the paper under review, the authors show that a similar Toeplitz corona theorem holds for the case where \(\mathcal A\) is a weak*-closed subalgebra of \(H^\infty\). This result is accomplished by the use of a modification of the Arveson distance formula.