Aleksandrov operators as smoothing operators

Abstract

A holomorphic function $b$ mapping the unit disk $\disk$ into itself induces a family of measures $\tau_\alpha$, $|\alpha|=1$, on the unit circle $\circle$ by means of Herglotz's Theorem. This family of measures defines the Aleksandrov operator $A_b$ by means of the formula $A_b f(\alpha) = \int_\circle f(\zeta)\,d\tau_\alpha(\zeta)$, at least for continuous $f$. This operator preserves the smoothness classes determined by regular majorants, and is seen to be compact on these classes precisely when none of the measures $\tau_\alpha$ has an atomic part. In the process, a duality theorem for smoothness classes is proved, improving a result of Shields and Williams, and various theorems about composition operators on weighted Bergman spaces are extended to spaces arising from regular weights.