Finitely generated closed ideals in \(H^{\infty}\) (Q762425)

The author givesa characterization of the finitely generated closed ideals in the Banach algebra \(H^{\infty}\) of bounded analytic functions in the unit disk \({\mathbb{D}}\). Whereas in the topological ring \(H({\mathbb{D}})\) of all analytic functions in \({\mathbb{D}}\) the closed ideals coincide with the principal and hence (by a theorem of Helmer and Wedderburn) with the finitely generated ideals, there exist in \(H^{\infty}\) closed ideals (e.g. the free maximal ideals) which are not finitely generated [see \textit{M. v. Renteln}; Collect. Math. 26, 115-126 (1975; Zbl 0315.46044)]. We present the following theorem: A finitely generated ideal \(I\neq (0)\) in \(H^{\infty}\) is closed if and only if it is a principal ideal that is generated by an inner function. The proof of this result is based on the characterization of the weak*- closed invariant subspaces of \(H^{\infty}\). Finally we remark that in the disk algebra \(A({\mathbb{D}})\) a similar result, by different methods, has been obtained by \textit{W. E. Dietrich} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 169, 59-74 (1972; Zbl 0257.46062)].