New function theoretic proofs of Brown--Halmos theorems (Q934515)

\textit{A.\,Brown} and \textit{P.\,R.\thinspace Halmos} [J.~Reine Angew.\ Math.\ 213, 89--102 (1963; Zbl 0116.32501)] characterized several algebraic properties of Toeplitz operators on the Hardy space \(H^2(\partial{\mathbb D})\). They proved that a bounded linear operator \(T\) is a Toeplitz operator if and only if \(S^*TS=T\), where \(S\) is the unilateral shift operator \(Sf(z)=zf(z)\). Further, let \(f\) and \(g\) belong to \(L^\infty(\partial{\mathbb D})\). Then the Toeplitz operators \(T_f\) and \(T_g\) commute if and only if one of the following conditions holds: (1) both \(f\) and \(g\) are analytic; (2) both \(\overline{f}\) and \(\overline{g}\) are analytic; (3) there exist nonzero constants \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) such that \(\alpha f+\beta g\) is constant. They also observed that the product of Toeplitz operators \(T_fT_g\) is a Toeplitz operator if and only if \(f\) is co-analytic or \(g\) is analytic. The author of the paper under review proposes new proofs of these classical results, based on the ideas of \textit{K.\,Stroethoff} and \textit{D.--C.\thinspace Zheng} [Trans.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 354, No.\,6, 2495--2520 (2002; Zbl 0996.47036)].