Connectedness of spectra of Toeplitz operators on Hardy spaces with Muckenhoupt weights over Carleson curves (Q733645)

The authors consider Carleson Jordan curves and Hardy spaces with Muckenhoupt weights on such curves. As is well-known, Toeplitz operators with essentially bounded symbols can be defined on these Hardy spaces; a good source is the book by [\textit{A. Böttcher} and \textit{Yu. I. Karlovich}, ``Carleson curves, Muckenhoupt weights, and Toeplitz operators'' (Progress in Mathematics 154; Basel: Birkhäuser) (1997; Zbl 0889.47001)]. In the paper under review, the authors prove the following main result: the essential spectrum of such a general Toeplitz operator is a connected planar set. This is an extension of a classical theorem for Hardy spaces of the unit circle due to R. G. Douglas. Using a theorem attributed to Coburn and Simonenko (which states that a Toeplitz operator is invertible on a Hardy space if and only if it is a Fredholm operator of index zero on the same space), they deduce the following corollary: the spectrum of a Toeplitz operator of the general type considered is connected. This extends another classical theorem for Hardy spaces of the circle due to H. Widom. (Both standard results mentioned can be found, for example, in \textit{R. D. Douglas}'s book [``Banach algebra techniques in operator theory'' (2nd ed.) (Graduate Texts in Mathematics 179; New York: Springer) (1998; Zbl 0920.47001)]). The proofs are involved but follow some of the original ideas of Widom and Douglas' modifications. The presentation appears to be self-contained.