Skip to main content
2 of 3
Fix mistake about outer functions; and ensure we do construct in the disc algebra
Matthew Daws
  • 18.7k
  • 7
  • 45
  • 76

I believe the following provides a counter-example for "weak implies norm continuity" in the case $E=c_0$.

Given any $F:\overline{\mathbb D} \rightarrow c_0$ let $F_n:\overline{\mathbb D} \rightarrow \mathbb C$ be the $n$th coordinate. If $F$ is weakly continuous on $\overline{\mathbb D}$ and analytic on $\mathbb D$, then each $F_n$ is a member of $A(\mathbb D)$ and $\|F_n\|_\infty\leq K$ for some $K$ independent of $n$. Conversely, if these two conditions hold on the $F_n$ then for any $a=(a_n)\in\ell^1 = c_0^*$ we have that $$ \newcommand{\ip}[2]{\langle{#1},{#2}\rangle}\ip{a}{F(z)} = \sum_n a_n F_n(z) $$ and so $z\mapsto \ip{a}{F(z)}$ is in $A(\mathbb D)$ as it is the absolutely convergent sum of members of $A(\mathbb D)$. By properties of functions in Hardy spaces (see e.g. page 50 of these notes) we know that $$ F_n(\xi) = \int_{\mathbb T} \frac{z F_n(z)}{z-\xi} \ dz \qquad (\xi\in\mathbb D). $$

We now seek to construct $F$ by constructing a suitable sequence $(F_n)$. That $F(z)\in c_0$ for all $z$ implies that $F_n(z)\rightarrow 0$ pointwise. Under the assumption that $\|F_n\|_\infty\leq K$ for all $n$, for fixed $\xi\in\mathbb D$ we can apply the dominated convergence theorem to the integral above to see that $F_n(z)\rightarrow 0$ pointwise for $z\in\mathbb T$ implies that $F_n(\xi)\rightarrow 0$.

We shall use Outer functions (page 35 in the notes linked above). Choose a positive function $h$ on $\mathbb T$ with $\log h$ being integrable; then we can form an outer function $F$ with $|F|$ having nontangential limit $h$ at the boundary, almost everywhere. It is not clear to me that just because $h$ is continuous it will follow that $F$ is in $A(\mathbb D)$ instead of just a Hardy space; so we work a bit harder.

Firstly, choose $t\mapsto h_n(e^{it})$ to be the piecewise linear function with $h_n(1) = h_n(e^{i2\pi/n})=1/n$ and $h_n(e^{i\pi/n})=1$. Let $F_n$ be the Outer function with $|F_n|$ having nontangential limit $h_n$ on the boundary, almost everywhere. We can find $r_n<1$ such that if we define $G_n(z) = F_n(r_nz)$ for $z\in\overline{\mathbb D}$ then there will be $a_n, b_n\in\mathbb T$ with $|a_n-1|<\frac1n, |b_n-e^{i\pi/n}|<\frac1n, ||G_n(a_n)|-\frac1n|<\frac1n$ and $||G_n(b_n)|-1|<\frac1n$. Certainly $G_n\in A(\mathbb D)$ with $\|G_n\|\leq 1$.

Finally, form $G\in A(\mathbb D, c_0)$ using the sequence $(G_n)$, and observe that $$ \| G(b_n) - G(a_n) \|_{\infty} \geq | G_n(b_n) - G_n(a_n) | \geq 1 - 3/n $$ so as $a_n \rightarrow 1$ and $b_n\rightarrow 1$, we conclude that $G$ cannot be norm continuous.

Matthew Daws
  • 18.7k
  • 7
  • 45
  • 76