Introduction.Let 1 <p^ao, L"=L"{0, 2n) and 77* the set of periodic functions x+{<f>)eLp with Fourier coefficients vanishing on the negative integers: x+{</>)-!?= o xne™.Let fi+) eL", l//> + l/a= 1.Then, for any x+{<f>) e H", f{<f>)x+{</>) e L1 and therefore formally f{<f>)x+{f>)~y+{<f>) + v+{t>)e~i<t'.We define the Toeplitz operator T=T{f) : 77p -> 77p associated with/ by D{T{f)) = {x+(¿) g 77" : f{<¡>)x+{</>) = y + {<t>)-rv + {^)e^ and y+ e 77"} y+it) = T{f)x+{<p).Below, we assume that a^2 (so that 1 </? = 2 and H"=>H9) to assure that D{T{f)) contains all polynomials in e10 and is dense in 77p.(We insist that/e Lq, l/p+ l/a= 1, so that fx e L1, for x e D{T(f)).)It should be noted that the results below remain valid if p is replaced by any index p', púp'Ú2, since f{f>) eL"' for 2^q'^q.In [4], for p = 2, Hartman and Wintner posed the problem of the determination of the location of the spectrum and point spectrum of T{f).A number of steps ([6], [9], [1], [12], [2], [3], [8]) toward solving this problem have been taken.In some investigations of the point spectrum, additional assumptions have been made, such as, for example, that T{f) is selfadjoint [6], that 2 |/n| <°° ([9], [3]), or that f{<f>) is bounded and satisfies (0.1) arg/0) -g{<f>) + K<f>)where g(<£) = 2"=i a/7(^ -0y), J{(f>) = <t>~ 2rr[<p\2rr\, [x] the integral part of x, and the conjugate of «(<£) = conj h{f>) eL™ [12].In [7], Hartman found necessary and sufficient conditions that 0 (and hence any complex A) belong to the point spectrum of T{f), p = 2. Hartman's general conditions are in terms of the conj arg/(<£).If N{T{f)) is the null space of Tif), we find necessary and sufficient conditions on f{<f>) that dim N{T(f)) = m (Theorem 1.1) under the assumption that (0.1) holds with h{j>) continuous.This result is in terms of conj h{<¡>).When it is assumed, for example, that conj h{f>) is bounded (Corollary 1.2), our results generalize those of [12].We make no use of the hypothesis ||/|| M < oo and, even in case/(<£) is bounded, our results are more general than those of [12].
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