Volterra operators on Hardy spaces of Dirichlet series

Ole Fredrik Brevig, Karl-Mikael Perfekt, Kristian Seip

Published 2016-02-15Version 1

For a Dirichlet series symbol $g(s) = \sum_{n \geq 1} b_n n^{-s}$, the associated Volterra operator $\mathbf{T}_g$ acting on a Dirichlet series $f(s)=\sum_{n\ge 1} a_n n^{-s}$ is defined by the integral $f\mapsto -\int_{s}^{+\infty} f(w)g'(w)\,dw$. We show that $\mathbf{T}_g$ is a bounded operator on the Hardy space $\mathcal{H}^p$ of Dirichlet series with $0 < p < \infty$ if and only if the symbol $g$ satisfies a Carleson measure condition. When appropriately restricted to one complex variable, our condition coincides with the standard Carleson measure characterization of ${\operatorname{BMOA}}(\mathbb{D})$. A further analogy with classical ${\operatorname{BMO}}$ is that $\exp(c|g|)$ is integrable (on the infinite polytorus) for some $c > 0$ whenever $\mathbf{T}_g$ is bounded. In particular, such $g$ belong to $\mathcal{H}^p$ for every $p < \infty$. We relate the boundedness of $\mathbf{T}_g$ to several other ${\operatorname{BMO}}$ type spaces: ${\operatorname{BMOA}}$ in half-planes, the dual of $\mathcal{H}^1$, and the space of symbols of bounded Hankel forms. Moreover, we study symbols whose coefficients enjoy a multiplicative structure and obtain coefficient estimates for $m$-homogeneous symbols as well as for general symbols. Finally, we consider the action of $\mathbf{T}_g$ on reproducing kernels for appropriate sequences of subspaces of $\mathcal{H}^2$. Our proofs employ function and operator theoretic techniques in one and several variables; a variety of number theoretic arguments are used throughout the paper in our study of special classes of symbols $g$.