Spectra of composition operators on BMOA (Q814378)

The authors consider composition operators acting on the space BMOA of analytic functions of bounded mean oscillation. Specifically, they consider operators whose symbol is a univalent self-map of the unit disk of elliptic type (that is, with a fixed point in the disk), other than an automorphism. They show that if the essential spectral radius of the composition operator with the same symbol acting on the Hardy space is different from zero, then the spectrum of the operator (on BMOA) coincides with the closed disk. This interesting result confirms a conjecture formulated by \textit{B.~MacCluer} and \textit{K.~Saxe} [Isr.\ J.\ Math.\ 128, 325--354 (2002; Zbl 1024.47009)], who were able to show that the spectrum must contain a certain annulus. The authors of the paper under review also prove an analogous result for a special weighted composition operator (change of variable) acting on the space denoted \(N_ 1\), a conformally invariant space that contains the Bergman space of area square integrable analytic functions in the disk. It is actually this latter result on \(N_ 1\) that implies the former theorem (on BMOA). One of the key points is that, among the weighted composition operators considered, those whose essential spectral radius (for the Hardy space) is non-null, have essential spectral radius (on the space \(N_ 1\)) equal to one. Among the tools employed in the proof, the authors use some special invariant subspaces, certain norm bounds based on the typical computation involving Parseval's formula, as well as some estimates characteristic for the study of essential norms which resemble those used by \textit{A.~Montes-Rodríguez} [Pac.\ J.\ Math.\ 188, No.~2, 339--351 (1999; Zbl 0932.30034)] in computing the essential norm of a composition operator acting on the Bloch space.