Symbols of truncated Toeplitz operators (Q647622)

The authors consider three topics connected with coinvariant subspaces of the backward shift operators in Hardy spaces \(H^p\): properties of truncated Toeplitz operators; Carleson-type embedding theorems for the coinvariant subspaces; factorization of pseudocontinuable functions in \(H^1\). Let \(\theta\) be an inner function in the unit disk and \(K_\theta^p= H^p\cap\theta H_-^p\). The truncated Toeplitz operator with symbol \(\varphi\) is defined by \(A_\varphi f=P_\theta(\varphi f)\), where \(P_\theta\) is the orthogonal projection from \(L^2\) onto \(K_\theta^2\). The class of all bounded truncated Toeplitz operators will be denoted by \({\mathcal T}_\theta\). Let \({\mathcal C}_p(\theta)\) be the class of all finite complex Borel measures such that \(K_\theta^p\) is continuously embedded in \(L^p(|\mu|)\), the class of all positive measures in \({\mathcal C}_p(\theta)\) is denoted by \({\mathcal C}_p^+(\theta)\). If \(\mu\in{\mathcal C}_2(\theta)\), one can define the bounded operator \(A_\mu\) on \(K_\theta^2\) by the formula \((A_\mu f,g)=\int f\overline{g}\,d\mu\). The following four main results are proved. Theorem 1. Every nonnegative bounded truncated Toeplitz operator on \(K_\theta^2\) coincides with an operator \(A_\mu\) for some \(\mu\in{\mathcal C}_2^+(\theta)\). For every bounded truncated Toeplitz operator \(A\) on \(K_\theta^2\), there exists a complex measure \(\mu\in{\mathcal C}_2(\theta)\) such that \(A=A_\mu\). Theorem 2. A bounded truncated Toeplitz operator \(A\) admits a bounded symbol if and only if \(A=A_\mu\) for some \(\mu\in{\mathcal C}_1(\theta)\). Let \(X\) be the space of all functions representable in the form \(\sum_k x_k\overline{y_k}\) with \(x_k,y_k\in K_\theta^2\) such that \(\sum_k \|x_k\|_2\cdot \|y_k\|_2<\infty\). Theorem 3. The space dual to \(X\) can be naturally identified with \({\mathcal T}(\theta)\). Namely, continuous linear functionals over \(X\) are of the form \(\Phi_A(f)=\sum_k (Ax_k,y_k)\), \(f=\sum_k x_k\overline{y_k}\in X\), with \(A\in{\mathcal T}(\theta)\), and the correspondence between the continuous functionals over \(X\) and the space \({\mathcal T}(\theta)\) is one-to-one and isometric. With respect to the above duality, the space \(X\) is dual to the class of all compact truncated Toeplitz operators. Theorem 4. The following statements are equivalent: (a) any bounded truncated Toeplitz operator on \(K_\theta\) admits a bounded symbol; (b) \({\mathcal C}_1(\theta^2)={\mathcal C}_2(\theta^2)\); (c) for any \(f\in H^1\cap\overline{z}\theta^2 H^1_-\), there exist \(x_k,y_k\in K_\theta\) with \(\sum_k\|x_k\|_2\cdot\|y_k\|_2<\infty\) such that \(f=\sum_k x_ky_k\). It is also conjectured that the statements of Theorem~4 are fulfilled if and only if the inner function \(\theta\) is one-component.