Hilbert-Schmidt differences of composition operators between the weighted Bergman spaces on the unit ball (Q1943505)

Let \(\mathcal{H}\) be the space of holomorphic functions on the unit ball \(\mathbb{B}\) of \(\mathbb{C}^n\) and denote by \(\mathcal{S}\) the set of all holomorphic self-maps of \(\mathbb{B}\). For \(\varphi \in \mathcal{S}\), let \(C_\varphi:\mathcal{H}\to \mathcal{H}\) be the composition operator defined by \(C_\varphi(f)(z):=f(\varphi(z))\). In the paper under review, the authors give an estimate of the Hilbert-Schmidt norm of the difference of two bounded composition operators on the weighted Bergman space \(A^2_\alpha:=\mathcal{H}\cap L^2(d\nu_\alpha)\). Here, \(d\nu_\alpha(z):=(1-|z|^2)^\alpha d\nu(z)\), \(\alpha>-1\), where \(d\nu\) denotes the volume measure on \(\mathbb{B}\). One of the main results shows that, if \(\varphi, \psi\in \mathcal{S}\) and \(\rho(z,w)\) is the pseudohyperbolic distance on \(\mathbb{B}\), then \(C_{\varphi}-C_{\psi}\) is a Hilbert-Schmidt operator on \(A^2_\alpha\) if and only if \[ \int_{\mathbb{B}}\frac{\rho^2\left(\varphi(z),\psi(z)\right)}{(1-|\varphi(z)|^2)^{n+1+\alpha}}d\nu_\alpha(z)+ \int_{\mathbb{B}}\frac{\rho^2\left(\varphi(z),\psi(z)\right)}{(1-|\psi(z)|^2)^{n+1+\alpha}}d\nu_\alpha(z) \] is finite. In this case, the above expression is equivalent to \(\|C_{\varphi}-C_{\psi}\|_{HS}^2\). This estimate is used to obtain information about the topological structure (path components, isolated points) of the space of all composition operators on \(A^2_\alpha\). For instance, it is shown that, if \(C_\varphi\) and \(C_\psi\) are not Hilbert-Schmidt operators on \(A^2_\alpha\) and, for some \(a,b\neq 0\), the operator \(aC_\varphi+b C_\psi\) is Hilbert-Schmidt, then \(a=-b\), and that, if \(C_{\varphi}-C_{\psi}\) is a Hilbert-Schmidt operator on \(A^2_\alpha\), then for any \(0\leq s,t\leq 1\), the operators \(C_{(1-s)\varphi+s\psi}-C_{(1-t)\varphi+t\psi}\) are also Hilbert-Schmidt. For weighted Bergman spaces on the unit disk, the above mentioned results were proved in [\textit{B. R. Choe} et al., Math. Z. 269, No. 3--4, 751--775 (2011; Zbl 1234.47009)].