Unbounded weighted composition operators in \(L^2\)-spaces (Q1704455)

Denote by \((X, \Omega, \mu)\) a \(\sigma\)-finite measure space. The weighted composition operator \(C_{\varphi, w}\) is a linear operator acting as follows: for measurable transformations \(\varphi: X\rightarrow X\) and \(w: X\rightarrow \mathbb{C}\), \[ (C_{\varphi, w})f=w\cdot (f\circ \varphi), \] where the domain is \[ \{f\in L^{2}(\mu): w\cdot (f\circ \varphi)\in L^{2}(\mu)\}. \] The novelty of this book lies in charactering the properties of unbounded weighted composition operators. The authors aim at finding new reasonable criteria for the subnormality of unbounded weighted composition operators. A~variety of weighted composition operators are excluded by the approach proposed by former authors; the authors investigate such operators in this book. In Chapter 2, the authors introduce weighted composition operators and investigate their fundamental properties. It is striking that the characterization of unbounded quasinormal weighted composition operators looks formally the same as in the case of bounded composition operators. This is possible because the Radon-Nikodým derivative \(h_{\varphi, w}\) is employed, where \(h_{\varphi, w}=\frac{d\mu_{w}\circ \varphi^{-1}}{d\mu}\) and \(d\mu_{w}=|w|^{2}d\mu\). The authors use as powerful tool that is relevant for studying weighted composition operators the conditional expectation \(\mathrm{E}(\cdot; \varphi^{-1}(\Omega),\mu )\). In Chapter. 3, the authors establish criteria for the subnormality of bounded and unbounded weighted composition operators. The authors' former first-ever criteria is adapted to the subnormality of unbounded densely defined composition operators in \(L^{2}\) spaces, with no additional restrictions on their domains. The characterization is also in terms of moments \(\{\int_{0}^{\infty}t^{n}P(x, dt)\}_{n=0}^{\infty}\), where \(P\) is a measurable family of Borel probability measures on \(\mathbb{R}_{+}\). In Chapter 4, the authors provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the \(n\)th power \(C^{n}_{\varphi, w}\) of a weighted composition operator \(C_{\varphi, w}\) to be densely defined and sufficient conditions for\(C^{n}_{\varphi, w}\) to be closed. The characterizations of weighted composition operators are also in terms of generating Stieltjes moment sequences, which resemble the celebrated Lambert's characterizations of bounded subnormal composition operators. Chapter 5 is devoted to characterize the class of seminormal weighted composition operators and some of its subclasses. The approach here avoids the restrictive assumptions by \textit{J. T. Campbell} and \textit{W. E. Hornor} [J. Oper. Theory 29, No. 2, 323--343 (1993; Zbl 0870.47020)], and the results hold in full generality. The positive selfadjoint weighted composition operators are also characterized. In Chapter 6, the general results mentioned so far are adapted to the case of weighted composition operators over discrete measure spaces. The hyponormality, cohyponormality and normality are characterized. The authors discuss the interplay between the theory of moments, the geometry of graphs induced by symbols of discrete weighted composition operators and the injectivity problem. Various examples that indicate the sharpness of the obtained results are also provided. The authors also provide an example of an isometric weighted composition operator \(C_{\varphi, w}\) for which the corresponding composition operator \(C_{\varphi}\) is not well defined. In Chapter 7, the authors study relationships between the weighted composition operators \(C_{\varphi, w}\) and the corresponding composition operators \(C_{\varphi}\). The weighted composition operator \(C_{\varphi, w}\) is decomposed as \(M_{w}C_{\varphi}\), then general properties of \(C_{\varphi, w}\) are characterized in terms of \(M_{w}\) and \(C_{\varphi}\). The authors also offer a number of examples indicating surprisingly complex relationships between the operators \(C_{\varphi, w}\), \(M_{w}\) and \(C_{\varphi}\). In Chapter 8, the authors consider the problem of when the tensor product \(C_{\varphi_{1}, w_{1}}\otimes C_{\varphi_{2}, w_{2}}\otimes\dots\otimes C_{\varphi_{N}, w_{N}}\) of finitely many weighted composition operators can be regarded as the weighted composition operator \(C_{\varphi, w}\) where \(C_{\varphi_{i}, w_{i}}\), \(i=1, 2, \dots, N\), are densely defined. The authors also consider a specific method of modifying the symbol of a weighted composition operator \(C_{\varphi, w}\) that is relevant to quasinormality. Two open questions that related to tensor products are stated in this chapter.