J. London Math. Soc.

(2) 88 (2013) 779800

C
e
2013 London Mathematical Society
doi:10.1112/jlms/jdt038
Prime and semiprime inner functions
Isabelle Chalendar, Pamela Gorkin and Jonathan R. Partington
Abstract
This paper studies the structure of inner functions under the operation of composition, and
in particular the notions or primeness and semiprimeness. Results proved include the density
of prime nite Blaschke products in the set of nite Blaschke products, the semiprimeness of
nite products of thin Blaschke products and their approximability by prime Blaschke products.
An example of a nonsemiprime Blaschke product that is a Frostman Blaschke product is also
provided.
1. Introduction and notation
Let D be the open unit disk of the complex plane C. An analytic function u : D

D is said
to be an inner function if it has radial limits of modulus 1 at almost every (a.e.) point of the
unit circle T = z C : [z[ = 1. Among the inner functions are the Blaschke products and the
singular inner functions. Moreover, each inner function is the product of such functions, with
uniqueness of factorization up to a constant of modulus 1. If (a
n
)
n
denotes the zero sequence
(counting multiplicities) of u, then the zeros satisfy the so-called Blaschke condition

n
(1 [a
n
[) < .
The Blaschke product associated with (a
n
)
n
is dened on D by
B(z) =

n
[a
n
[
a
n
a
n
z
1 a
n
z
,
with the convention [a
n
[/a
n
= 1 if a
n
= 0. A Blaschke product will, in general, also include
a multiplicative constant of modulus 1. The singular inner factor S

associated with a nite

positive Borel measure on T singular with respect to Lebesgue measure, is dened on D by
S

(z) = exp
_

2
0
e
i
+z
e
i
z
d()
_
.
The set of singularities of u is a closed subset of T which is the union of the support of and
the cluster points of the set of zeros of the zeros of u.
Recall that the composition of two inner functions is still an inner function. In [23],
Stephenson studied so-called prime inner functions: an inner function I is prime (with respect
to composition) if whenever I is written as a composition of two inner functions u and v, then
at least one of them must be a M obius transformation. In [8], this study was extended to
semiprime inner functions; that is, whenever I can be written as a composition of two inner
functions, at least one of them is a nite Blaschke product. This study is closely related to
other work of Stephenson [21, 22] as well as that of Gross [10] on factorization of meromorphic
functions, Urabe [25] on factorization of Blaschke products with nitely many singularities,
Received 25 June 2012; revised 21 January 2013; published online 5 September 2013.
2010 Mathematics Subject Classication 30D05, 30J05, 46J20 (primary), 30J10 (secondary).
The authors acknowledge nancial support from the ANR FRAB.
780 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
Ritt [18], Cowen [2] and Ry [19]. The question of when a Blaschke product is the composition
of two nontrivial Blaschke products is a dicult one, as can be seen from the following.
A prime polynomial p(x) C[x] is often called indecomposable; that is, p is indecomposable
if whenever f(x) = g(h(x)) for polynomials g and h, then either g or h is linear. Feit (see
[ 1; 4, p. 176]) discussed the connection between this study and, surprisingly, the classication
of nite simple groups. In fact, in 1979, writing the classication theorem (see, for example,
[26]), as
() the list of nite simple groups consists of groups of Lie type, alternating groups and the
26 sporadic groups that are currently known,
Feit mentions the following theorem.
Theorem 1. Assume that () holds. Let f and g be nonconstant indecomposable
polynomials in C[x]. Suppose that f(x) g(y) factors in C[x, y]. Then either g(x) = f(ax +b)
for some a, b C, or
deg f = deg g = 7, 11, 13, 15, 21, or 31.
In [8], the primary focus was on singular inner functions. In this paper, we turn our attention
to various classes of Blaschke products: nite Blaschke products, nite products of thin Blaschke
products and Frostman Blaschke products. We present the denitions here before stating our
results.
A Blaschke product is called nite if it has only a nite number of zeros. The degree of
a nite Blaschke product is dened as the number of its zeros, taking into account their
multiplicities. Therefore, an inner function u is a nite Blaschke product if and only if the set
of its singularities on T is empty.
Recall that a Blaschke product B is said to be thin if the zero sequence (z
n
) satises
(1 [z
n
[
2
)[B

(z
n
)[ 1
as n . Note that using this denition, we may have repeated zeros, but only nitely many
repetitions are permitted. Moreover, a Blaschke product is interpolating, or Carleson, whenever
inf
n
(1 [z
n
[
2
)[B

(z
n
)[ > 0.
For a D, we write

a
(z) =
z a
1 az
and L
a
(z) =
z +a
1 + az
.
We shall use both versions of this notation, as they play dierent roles in what follows. We
shall also require Frostmans classical theorem [7] that for any inner function I the Frostman
shift
a
I is a Blaschke product for almost all a D; in particular, the Blaschke products are
dense in the inner functions.
In this paper, we analyze prime (or indecomposable) Blaschke products. In [8], many
examples of prime inner functions are presented. We summarize these in the table below.
In the nal row, the function S

is the atomic singular inner function

S

(z) = exp
_
z + 1
z 1
_
.
Interestingly, S

, which has roots of nth order for every n and is therefore not prime, can be
multiplied into the class of semiprime inner functions by adding a single zero: that zS

belongs
in the columns below is a result due to Stephenson [23, p. 863] of which a simple proof can be
found in [8]. That zS

belongs in the row below is a consequence of the fact that it is prime

and therefore the previous rows of that table show that it cannot omit a value.
PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 781
Table 1. Summary of known results for inner functions
Type of inner function Semiprime Prime
Singular If and only if nitely many singular-
ities
Never
Omits more then 1 point of D Never Never
Omits exactly 1 point of D If and only if nitely many singular-
ities
Never
Surjective inner Thin Blaschke
a
B, B thin Blaschke
zS

a / E, E a countable set
zS

From table 1, together with Urabes result [25] that an inner function with nitely many
singularities is semiprime, we see that an inner function with nitely many singularities can
omit at most one value in D. For further results on the set of singularities of an inner function
omitting at least two points, we refer the reader to [5, 6].
Looking at the table above raises several other questions. For example, is every surjective
inner function prime or semiprime? In addition to those appearing in the table, there are several
other examples of ways that singular inner functions can be multiplied by functions to become
prime. For example, for the atomic singular inner function S

(z) = exp((z + 1)/(z 1)),

multiplying by a Blaschke product with a simple zero at zero and satisfying [B(r)[ 1 as
r 1 changes the nonprime function S into the function BS, which is prime. Which Blaschke
products can be multiplied into the class of prime or semiprime Blaschke products?
A Blaschke product with zeros (a
n
) is said to be a uniform Frostman Blaschke product if it
satises
sup
T

1 [a
n
[
[a
n
[
< ,
and it will be said to be a Frostman Blaschke product if

n=1
((1 [a
n
[)/[a
n
[) < at
each point T. In [8], the following question was posed: is every uniform Frostman Blaschke
product semiprime? One of our results, presented in Section 5, is that every Blaschke product
for which the set of discontinuities on the unit circle is not the whole circle can be multiplied into
the class of semiprime inner functions by a power of z. As a consequence of this multiplication
result, we show that every uniform Frostman Blaschke product can be multiplied into the
class of semiprime inner functions with a power of z and into the class of semiprime Blaschke
products by the square of a M obius transformation.
In [8], it was shown that a thin Blaschke B product is always semiprime, but for almost all
a D the product
a
B is prime. In general, it is much more likely that a Blaschke product
be prime or semiprime than not, though we have not been able to show that prime Blaschke
products are dense in the set of all Blaschke products. However, in Section 3 we show that
Blaschke products that are prime or cannot be written in the form X Y with X, Y Blaschke
and Y a nite Blaschke product are dense in the set of Blaschke products and, as a consequence,
we note that this shows that prime nite Blaschke products are dense in the set of nite Blaschke
products. Using this, in Section 6 we present our main theorem, showing that nite products
of thin Blaschke products can be uniformly approximated by prime Blaschke products. The
proof of this theorem shows how dicult it can be to prove that a semiprime Blaschke product
can be approximated by a prime Blaschke product.
In Section 7, we will present a simple example of a surjective function that is not semiprime,
a Frostman Blaschke product that is not semiprime and other examples of Blaschke products
that are close to thin but not semiprime.
782 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
2. Background and preliminary results
In what follows, we let T denote the class of prime inner functions.
Recall that a function f in H

has radial limits a.e. We will usually denote the radial

limit function f

by f. To obtain complete results, it is necessary to use maximal ideal space

techniques and we may view our function f as a continuous function on M(H

) via the
Gelfand transform of f:

f(x) := x(f). We recall the relevant information here. We let M(H

)
denote the maximal ideal space of H

; that is, the space of nonzero multiplicative linear

functions on H

equipped with the weak- topology. Identifying z D with point evaluation

allows us to think of D as a subset of M(H

) and Carlesons corona theorem tells us that

D is dense in M(H

). We consider two decompositions of the maximal ideal space. First,

we consider the bers over points

D dened by M

= y M(H

) : y(z) = , where z
denotes the identity function. Next, we consider the Gleason parts: given two points z, w D
the pseudohyperbolic distance between them is denoted by and given by
(z, w) =

z w
1 wz

.
For two points in M(H

), we have
(x, y) = sup[f(y)[ : f H

, |f| 1, f(x) = 0.
This denition agrees with the usual one when x, y D; if we dene two points to be equivalent
when (x, y) < 1, then this denes an equivalence relation and the equivalence classes are called
Gleason parts.
In this paper, one very important concept is the map L
x
associated with a point x M(H

):
given a point x M(H

) D, there is an associated map L

x
that is a limit of the maps L
z

dened by
L
z

(z) :=
z +z

1 + z

z
,
where (z

) is a net in D converging to x in M(H

). The function L
x
maps the open unit
disk onto the Gleason part P(x) of x, L
x
(0) = x and, identifying a function f with its Gelfand
transform, we have f L
x
H

whenever f H

.
In general, we need to apply techniques developed by Homan [15] in his in-depth study of
the Gleason parts in the maximal ideal space of H

. For completeness, we provide references

for the lemmas and propositions that we will use in the paper that are not readily available
and short proofs when possible. For the rst result below, see also [3, p. 51; 12].
Lemma 2. If u is an inner function analytic in a neighborhood of
0
T, then
lim
zD,z
0
(1 [z[
2
)[u

(z)[
1 [u(z)[
2
= 1.
We will also need a very useful characterization of thin Blaschke products, due to
Tolokonnikov [24, Theorem 2.3].
Theorem 3. A Blaschke product B is thin if and only if
lim
|z|1

([B(z)[
2
+ (1 [z[
2
)[B

(z)[) = 1.
As a consequence of this characterization, it follows that thin Blaschke products are stable
under composition on the left by M obius transformations, as well as composition on the right
PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 783
by nite Blaschke products (see [8, Proposition 4.3] for a proof of this result; for composition
on the left, the result is well known and follows easily from Tolokonnikovs characterization).
We record this result for future reference.
Proposition 4. Let B be a thin Blaschke product, let a D and b be a nite Blaschke
product. Then
a
B and B b are still thin Blaschke products.
We now present two useful lemmas due to Homan.
Lemma 5. Let B be an innite thin Blaschke product and let (z
n
)
n
be a subsequence of
zeros of B. If B L
z
n
converges to f on D for the weak- topology, then there exists R
such that f(z) = e
i
z.
Proof. Since B L
z
n
(0) = B(z
n
) = 0, it follows that f(0) = 0. Moreover, |f|

1. Since
[(B L
z
n
)

(0)[ = [B

(z
n
)(1 [z
n
[
2
)[ and since B is thin, we get [f

(0)[ = 1. The conclusion

follows from Schwarzs lemma.
We also need to analyze what happens whenever (z
n
)
n
is not necessarily a subsequence of
zeros of B.
Lemma 6. Let B be an innite thin Blaschke product and let (z
n
)
n
D such that [z
n
[ 1.
If B L
z
n
converges to f on D for the weak- topology, then there exists R such that
f(z) = e
i
or f is a M obius transformation.
Proof. If [f(0)[ = 1, since |f|

1, then the maximum principle implies that f is a

constant of modulus 1. Otherwise, note that
f(0)
B L
z
n
weak- converges to g =
f(0)
f,
with g(0) = 0. Since B is thin, by Proposition 4,
f(0)
B is also thin. By Theorem 3,
lim
n
(1 [z
n
[
2
)[(
f(0)
B)

(z
n
)[ +[(
f(0)
B)(z
n
)[
2
= 1.
Since [(
f(0)
B)(z
n
)[ 0, we get
lim
n
(1 [z
n
[
2
)[(
f(0)
B)

(z
n
)[ = 1. (1)
Since [L

z
n
(0)[ = 1 [z
n
[
2
and L
z
n
(0) = z
n
, (1) means [g

(0)[ = 1. Now, Schwarzs lemma shows

that there exists R such that g(z) = e
i
z, and then f is a M obius transformation.
We shall need the following elementary lemma from [8].
Proposition 7. Let I = U V for inner functions U and V, and I satisfying I(0) = 0.
Then I = U
1
V
1
where U
1
(0) = V
1
(0) = 0.
The proof follows by writing I = U
1
V (0)

V (0)
V .
Given this proposition, if I(0) ,= 0, then we may compose with a Mobius transformation
to obtain I
1
=
I(0)
I with I
1
(0) = 0. Now I is prime if and only if I
1
is and, according to
Proposition 7, I
1
is prime if and only if it has no factorization of the form U
1
V
1
with U
1
and
V
1
vanishing at 0. Therefore, we may assume I(0) = 0 and U
1
(0) = V
1
(0) = 0.
784 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
3. Preliminary density results
Every thin Blaschke product B has the property that for almost all a D, the product
a
B T
for almost all a D (see [8]). In fact, much more is true as we shall see below.
We show that we can always multiply a Blaschke product by a single Blaschke factor so that
the resulting product is not of the form X Y with Y a nite (nontrivial) Blaschke product. In
particular, we can multiply every nite Blaschke product into the set of prime nite Blaschke
products. As a consequence, we will see that prime nite Blaschke products are dense in the
set of nite Blaschke products, a result we were unable to nd in the literature.
We will call a nite Blaschke product B monic if it is of the form
B(z) = z
m
n

j=1
z a
j
1 a
j
z
,
where the product is taken over the nonzero zeros of B. Given a Blaschke product B, we let
N
B
be the set of nite monic subproducts of B. Note that if C = B where B is a monic
Blaschke product and T, then C is the composition of two (possibly nonmonic) Blaschke
products if and only if B is. We will rotate our Blaschke products, when necessary, to assume
that they are monic.
Theorem 8. For every Blaschke product B with B(0) = 0 and all but countably many
a D, the product
a
B is not of the form U V with U inner and V a nite Blaschke product
of degree greater than 1.
Proof. Using Proposition 7, we consider only factorizations for which B(0) = U(0) =
V (0) = 0.
Let (z
j
) denote the zero sequence of B. For each n N, consider each Blaschke product V
of degree n with zero set contained in (z
j
). Now, there are countably many choices for monic
subproducts of B of degree n or subproducts B/V for which V is of degree n (choosing the
n indices of the zeros amounts to a bijection with N N N (n times)). Now, let N
B
denote the set of monic subproducts V of B with V (0) = 0, and consider
A
V,n
= V (z
j
) : V N
B
, j N, deg V = n
and
D
V,n
= (B/V )(z
j
) : V N
B
, j N, deg V = n.
Now both of these sets are countable and so we may choose a so that if W N
B
, then
W(a) /
_
V,n
A
V,n
and (B/W)(a) /
_
V,n
D
V,n
;
that is,
a /
_
_
_
{W:WN
B
}
_
V,n
W
1
(A
V,n
)
_
_

_
_
_
{B/W:WN
B
}
_
V,n
(B/W)
1
(D
V,n
)
_
_
.
Suppose

a
B = U
1
V
1
,
with V
1
of degree m > 1. Since U
1
(0) = 0 = V
1
(0) and we suppose that V
1
is monic, we
have
a
B = U
1
V
1
= V
1
(U
2
V
1
) with U
1
(z) = zU
2
(z). Then V
1
N
B
or V
1
(a) = 0 and
V
1
/
a
N
B
.
PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 785
If V
1
is a nite subproduct of B, then since V
1
is of degree greater than 1, there is a second
point z
0
such that V
1
(z
0
) = V
1
(a). Since
a
B has a zero of order 1 at a, it is not possible to have
a = z
0
, so a ,= z
0
. By our choice of a, we cannot have z
0
= z
j
for any j. But then B(z
0
) ,= 0 and

a
(z
0
) ,= 0, so (
a
B)(z
0
) ,= 0. But (
a
B)(z
0
) = (U
1
V
1
)(z
0
) = U
1
(V
1
(a)) = (
a
B)(a) = 0, a
contradiction.
If V
1
=
a
B
1
where B
1
is a subproduct of B, then

a
B = V
1
(U
2
V
1
)
implies
B
2
= U
2
V
1
,
where B
2
=
a
B/V
1
= B/B
1
and V
1
=
a
B
1
. By our choice of a, we have B
2
(a) ,= B
2
(z
j
) for
any j. On the other hand, V
1
(a) = 0 = V
1
(z
j
) for some j, so B
2
(a) = U
2
(V
1
(a)) = U
2
(V
1
(z
j
)) =
B
2
(z
j
), a contradiction.
Corollary 9. The set of prime nite Blaschke products is dense in the set of all nite
Blaschke products and hence weak- dense in the set of all inner functions.
Proof. First note that for every nite Blaschke product,
a
B is a Blaschke product for
every a D, so we may assume B(0) = 0. Let B be a nite Blaschke product and suppose
that D is a zero of B. Consider C = B/

. Then C is nite and therefore, for any > 0,

we may use Theorem 8 to choose a close to so that
a
C cannot be factored as U V with
V nite, of degree greater than 1, and |
a
C B| < . Since C is nite, every factorization

a
C = U V implies that V is of nite degree, and therefore the degree of such a V must be 1.
Thus,
a
C is prime.
Remark 10. The same method of proof shows that the set of (prime) nite Blaschke
products such that every subproduct is prime (one might call them hereditarily prime) is open
and dense in the set of all nite Blaschke products.
We also obtain the following.
Corollary 11. The set of Blaschke products that are either prime or not of the form
X Y with Y a nite Blaschke product is dense in the set of all Blaschke products and hence
dense in the set of all inner functions.
Proof. We know that prime Blaschke products are dense in the set of nite Blaschke
products, so assume that B is innite. We show how to approximate B by a nonfactorizable
Blaschke product: if B(0) = 0, then the proof proceeds exactly as in Corollary 9. If not, then
consider I =
B(0)
B. Then I(0) = 0. If I is Blaschke and not prime, then we can nd a
sequence of Blaschke products (C
n
) that cannot be factored as X Y with Y a nite Blaschke
product converging uniformly to I. Therefore, (
1
B(0)
C
n
) converges uniformly to B and
these cannot be factored either, establishing the result. If
1
B(0)
C
n
is not a Blaschke product
for some n, then using Frostmans theorem we may replace
B(0)
by an appropriate M obius
transformation to obtain a Blaschke product that cannot be factored.
To put our approximation methods into context, we show below that a small movement in
the zeros of a Blaschke product can produce a Blaschke product that is far from the original,
786 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
even in the case of nite Blaschke products. Thus, to obtain prime Blaschke products that
approximate our original function, other methods are needed.
Recall that the pseudohyperbolic metric is given by (z, w) = [(z w)/(1 wz)[ for
z, w D.
Proposition 12. (i) For each > 0, there is an integer N and two degree-N Blaschke
products B
1
, B
2
with zeros z
1
, . . . , z
N
and w
1
, . . . , w
N
, respectively, normalized to be positive at
the origin, such that the hyperbolic distances satisfy (z
k
, w
k
) < for each k but |B
1
B
2
|

=
2. Moreover, we may take N to grow as 1/. Thus, uniform closeness of zeros does not guarantee
uniform closeness of the Blaschke products, even in the nite case.
(ii) For innite Blaschke products B
1
, B
2
normalized to be positive at the origin, provided
that > 0 is suciently small, the condition

k=1
(z
k
, w
k
) < implies |B
1
B
2
|

< 3.
Proof. (i) Take a > 0 and note that for the functions f(z) = z and g(z) =
(a z)/(1 az), we have (f g)(z) = a(z
2
1)/(1 az) so that |f g|

is asymptotic to
2a as a 0. It follows by the invariance of the pseudohyperbolic metric that two elementary
Blaschke factors b

and b

, with zeros at , and taking positive values at the origin, dier

in H

norm by a quantity asymptotic to 2(, ) as (, ) 0. This implies also that there

is a point P(, ) on the circle at which the arguments of b

and b

dier by asymptotically
the same quantity, 2(, ).
Note that by multiplying and by a complex number of modulus 1, we may rotate P(, ),
so that it equals 1, for example. Now for nite products of elementary Blaschke factors the
dierences in arguments add, and by taking O(1/) points we may obtain a total dierence in
argument of exactly radians at 1 (if it exceeds it slightly, then we can perturb the points to
reduce it).
(ii) It follows in a standard way that if inner functions
1
,
1
,
2
,
2
satisfy |
1

1
|

<

1
and |
2

2
|

<
2
, then
|
1

2

1

2
|

|
1
(
2

2
)|

+|(
1

1
)
2
|

<
1
+
2
.
Thus, we have the claimed result for nite products; the passage to innite products is
straightforward, since the nite products converge pointwise in D.
4. Semiprime and thin Blaschke products
In this section, we work toward answering this question: if B is semiprime and b is a nite
Blaschke product, then is b B or B b semiprime? Our rst result is a simple proof that
if b(z) = z
n
and B is thin, then b B is semiprime. We also show that nite products
of thin Blaschke products are semiprime. To approximate nite products of thin Blaschke
products by prime Blaschke products, however, we must apply maximal ideal space techniques
(see Section 6).
By Gorkin, Laroco, Mortini and Rupp [8, Theorem 4.1], every thin Blaschke product is
semiprime. Further, [8, Theorem 4.6] shows that if B is a thin Blaschke product, then
a
B
is prime for all but countably many a D. If we add an a / Z
D
(B), then
a
B will be a thin
interpolating Blaschke product if B was. Therefore, there are thin Blaschke products that are
prime, but many of them are semiprime.
Theorem 13. Let n be a positive integer, B be a thin Blaschke product and b(z) = z
n
.
Then b B is semiprime.
PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 787
Proof. Suppose that B is a Blaschke product such that the sequence (a
k
)
k
in D is a
subsequence of the zeros of B. Then, note that the nth derivative of B
n
, denoted by (B
n
)
(n)
,
satises (B
n
)
(n)
(a
k
) = n!(B

)
n
(a
k
). Now, since B is thin we get lim
k
(1 [a
k
[
2
)[B

(a
k
)[ = 1.
It follows that
lim
k
(1 [a
k
[
2
)
n
[(B
n
)
(n)
(a
k
)[ = n!.
Suppose B
n
= U V , where U and V are inner functions. Since B
n
is a Blaschke product, there
exists a D such that U(a) = 0. Then B
n
= (z
k
u) v, where z
k
u = U
a
, k is a positive
integer, u(0) ,= 0 and v =
a
V . Therefore, we have B
n
= v
k
(u v). Note that if v(z) = 0,
then u v(z) ,= 0. Since B is thin, all but nitely many zeros are simple. Suppose that v is
not a nite Blaschke product. Since v
k
divides B
n
, k must divide n. Now dene w such that
v = w
n/k
. Then B
n
= w
n
(u c w), where c(z) = z
n/k
. Therefore, w divides B, which implies
that w is also a thin Blaschke product. Denote by (a
n
k
)
k
the zeros of w.
Since B is thin and (a
n
k
)
k
is a subset of its zeros, we have noted that
lim
k
(1 [a
n
k
[
2
)
n
[(B
n
)
(n)
(a
n
k
)[ = n!.
Since [(B
n
)
(n)
(a
n
k
)[ = [(w
n
)
(n)
(a
n
k
)[[u(0)[, we have
lim
k
(1 [a
n
k
[
2
)
n
[(w
n
)
(n)
(a
n
k
)[[u(0)[ = n!.
Moreover, since w is a thin Blaschke product with zeros (a
n
k
)
k
, note that
lim
k
(1 [a
n
k
[
2
)
n
[(w
n
)
(n)
(a
n
k
)[ = n!.
Therefore, we have [u(0)[ = 1, and thus u is a constant of modulus 1. It follows that U is a
Blaschke product of degree k n, and thus B
n
is semiprime.
This proof shows that if B is a thin Blaschke product and B
2
= U V , then either V is
a nite Blaschke product or U
a
= z
2
for some M obius transformation
a
. Note that
[8, Proposition 4.3] (see also Proposition 4 with simplied proof) shows that if C is a thin
Blaschke product and c is a nite Blaschke product, then C c is again a thin Blaschke product.
Therefore, we cannot expect to say more about V .
The proof above does not apply to the more general case in which b is a nite Blaschke
product. For this, we need Homans theory, which we keep to a minimum at this point.
Theorem 14. Let B =

n
j=1
B
j
where B
j
is thin for each j. Then B is semiprime.
Proof. Suppose not. Write B = U V . Composing with a linear fractional transformation
on the left, we may suppose B(0) = 0. Using Proposition 7, we may also assume U(0) = V (0) =
0. Then B = V (U
1
V ). Therefore, V is a factor of B. If we always have V nite, then we are
done, so we may suppose that V has innitely many zeros.
Consider the zeros of V , denoted by (z
n
). If we let W = U
1
V , then W is a subproduct of
B and therefore also a nite product of thin Blaschke products (albeit not necessarily the B
j
).
Since W L
z
n
= U
1
V L
z
n
, we know that there is a subsequence that converges uniformly
on compacta to a function F. Therefore, for some subsequence (z
n

) we have
W L
z
n

F,
and the fact that W is a nite product of thin Blaschke products implies, using Lemma 6, that
either [F[ 1 or F is a nite, nonconstant Blaschke product.
On the other hand, F is also the limit of U
1
V L
z
n

and V is a nite product of thin

Blaschke products. Therefore, V L
z
n

D where D H

. Now V L
z
n

(0) = 0, so D
788 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
cannot be a constant of modulus 1. Therefore, V L
z
n

converges to a nite nonconstant

Blaschke product; that is, D is a nite Blaschke product. But at each point z D,
V L
z
n

(z) D(z),
and [D(z)[ < 1 so U
1
is continuous there and
U
1
V L
z
n

(z) U
1
D(z).
Therefore, F = U
1
D where F and D are nite Blaschke products. Hence, U
1
is also a nite
Blaschke product.
Corollary 15. Let B be a thin Blaschke product and let b be a nite Blaschke product.
Then b B is semiprime.
Proof. This follows immediately from Proposition 4 and Theorem 14.
5. Multiplying into the class of prime inner functions
The result of Stephenson cited in the introduction shows that the atomic singular inner function
can be multiplied into the class of prime inner functions. The multiplier can be chosen to be
the function z. Of course, the atomic singular inner function has a single discontinuity on the
unit circle. We show below that as long as the set of discontinuities of the inner function is
not the whole circle, then we can multiply it into the class of prime inner functions and the
multiplier can be chosen to be an elementary Blaschke product (a M obius mapping).
Theorem 16. Let I be a nonconstant inner function such that the Blaschke factor of I
has distinct zeros, I(0) = 0, and I is continuous on a subarc (, ) T of positive measure.
Then there exists n 1 such that the function z
n
I(z) is semiprime.
Proof. Without loss of generality,we may take (, ) = (, ) with > 0. For an inner
function u, let us denote the change of argument of u between and by arg u. By passing
to a subarc, if necessary, we may assume 0 < arg I < 2. Since we consider a subarc of positive
measure, there is in fact a > 0 such that arg V for all inner functions V with V (0) = 0.
By the above, we may choose n N such that z
n
V maps (, ) around the circle more
than once for any inner function V with V (0) = 0. We claim that z
n
I(z) is semiprime.
Suppose there exist U and V with U(0) = V (0) = 0 such that z
n
I(z) = U(V (z)) =
V (z)U
1
(V (z)), where U
1
(0) ,= 0. Since I has distinct zeros, we know U(z) = zU
1
(z) with
U
1
(0) ,= 0. Now write V (z) = z
k
V
1
(z) with V
1
(0) = 0.
We claim k = n. If not, then z
nk
V
2
(z) = U
1
(V (z)) with n k > 0. Then U
1
(0) =
U
1
(V (0)) = 0, a contradiction. So V (z) = z
n
V
1
(z) and V
1
(0) = 0. By our choice of n, we
have T V (, ) and since z
n
I(z) = U(V (z)) with I continuous on (, ) we must have
U continuous everywhere on T; that is, U is a nite Blaschke product.
We can improve upon this result, multiplying an inner function with no repeated zeros into T.
Theorem 17. If an inner function I is such that the Blaschke factor of I has no repeated
roots and is continuous on a subarc J of positive measure, then there is a nonempty open
subset A D such that
2
a
I is semiprime for all a A.
PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 789
Proof. We may suppose without loss of generality that the change of argument of I on the
interval J satises 0 < arg I < . Choosing the open set A such that < arg
a
< 3/2 for
all a A, we have 2 < arg
2
a
I < 4.
Now if
2
a
I = U V , then we may conjugate by M obius maps and take U(0) = 0 and
V (a) = 0, but then taking derivatives at a we have U

(0)V

(a) = 0, so either z
2
divides U,
or
2
a
divides V .
If the rst case holds, then I has a factor V
2
and consequently the Blaschke factor of I has
a repeated zero, a contradiction. So the second holds, and V maps the arc onto T, and so U is
continuous, and the result follows as in the proof of Theorem 16.
In [8], the following question was posed: is every uniform Frostman Blaschke product
semiprime? We work toward answering that question by combining the theorem above with a
result of Matheson. In [17], Matheson showed that a uniform Frostman Blaschke product has
nowhere dense spectrum. Therefore, we obtain the following corollary.
Corollary 18. Let B be a uniform Frostman Blaschke product. Then there exists an
integer n such that z
n
B is semiprime and an open set A D such that
2
a
B is semiprime for
all a A.
Turning our attention to thin Blaschke products, we may extend [8, Theorem 4.6].
Theorem 19. Let B be a thin Blaschke product. Then, there is a countable set S D
such that for each a D S and for each n 1,
a
B
n
is prime.
Proof. In our denition of S, we begin by taking a from the complement of the set Z
D
(B)
of zeros of B. That is, we shall suppose B(a) ,= 0. Suppose

a
B
n
= U V = (U
1
V (a)
) (
V (a)
V ) := U
1
V
1
,
with U
1
(0) = 0 and V
1
(a) = 0. Then we may write U
1
= zU
2
and V
1
=
a
V
2
, where U
2
and
V
2
are Blaschke products. Thus,
a
B
n
=
a
V
2
(U
2
(
a
V
2
)) and B
n
= V
2
(U
2
(
a
V
2
)). In
particular, 0 ,= B(a)
n
= V
2
(a)U
2
(0).
Now for all with V
2
() = 0, we have (B
n
/V
2
)() = U
2
(0) ,= 0, so each zero of V
2
is of order
nk where k is its order as a zero of B. It follows that V
2
= W
n
where W divides B and is
therefore thin or nite.
We have B
n
= W
n
U
2
(
a
W
n
). Suppose rst that W is an innite Blaschke product. Then,
by Lemma 5, taking a weak- limit along a subsequence of the zeros of W we obtain

1
z
n
=
2
z
n
U
2
(
3
z
n
),
where each
j
has modulus 1. Thus, U
2
is a unimodular constant and U is a M obius mapping.
So we may assume B
n
= W
n
U
2
(
a
W
n
) where W is a nite Blaschke product. Let I denote
U
2
(
a
W
n
). We have I(a) = U
2
(0) ,= 0. But for all with W() = 0, we have I() = U
2
(0) =
I(a). Now take
a , S
1
:=
_
W|B
Wnite

Z
D
(W)
I
1
(I()),
where I = B
n
/W
n
. For a , S
1
Z
D
(B), we have I(a) ,= U
2
(0) and the conclusion is that W
is constant, and hence V is a M obius mapping and
a
B
n
is prime.
790 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
We may also obtain a result for
a
(b B) where b is a nite prime Blaschke product (recall
that these are dense in the class of all nite Blaschke products, by Corollary 9), in particular,
for all b of prime degree. This result will be of further use later.
Proposition 20. Let B be a thin Blaschke product, and b be a nite prime Blaschke
product of degree n > 1. Then there is a countable set S D such that provided that a is
chosen with a , S and [(b B)(a)[ > [b
1
(0)[ for all the degree-(n 1) subproducts b
1
of b, we
have
a
(b B) prime.
Proof. Suppose
a
(b B) = U V . By Theorem 8, we may exclude a countable set of a and
assume that V is innite and U is nite, since
a
(b B) is a nite product of thin Blaschke
products and hence semiprime by Theorem 14.
As in the proof of Theorem 19, we write

a
(b B) = U V = (
a
V
2
)U
2
(
a
V
2
). (2)
Without loss of generality, given the way that the result is formulated, we may suppose b B =
B(b
1
B) and that V
2
has innitely many zeros in common with B. Taking a weak- limit along
sequences of common zeros of V
2
and B, and using Lemmas 5 and 6, we obtain

3
b(
1
z) = v
2
(z)U
2
(
2
v
2
(z)), (3)
where
1
,
2
,
3
T and v
2
is a nite Blaschke product with v
2
(0) = 0. Since b is prime, either
U
2
is constant or v
2
is M obius. Thus, we need only consider the latter case, and we have
v
2
=
4
z for some
4
T, since v
2
(0) = 0.
Note that by (2), we have [b(B(a))[ = [V
2
(a)U
2
(0)[ [U
2
(0)[. But we have [b
1
(0)[ = [U
2
(0)[ <
1 by (3). We therefore obtain a contradiction if [b(B(a))[ > [b
1
(0)[, and the result follows.
In Section 7, we will present an example of another way to multiply Blaschke products that
are continuous on an interval into the class of prime functions.
6. Prime approximations of nite products of thin Blaschke products
Since we are interested in the density of prime and semiprime functions, it is natural to ask
what we can get as a uniform limit of thin Blaschke products and whether or not the prime
Blaschke products are dense in the set of nite products of thin Blaschke products. To answer
these questions, we apply a result of Hedenmalm.
Let / denote the closed subalgebra generated by the thin Blaschke products and let c
denote the closed subalgebra of L

generated by H

and the complex conjugates of the

functions in /.
Note that if B is a Blaschke product invertible in c, then for all x in the maximal ideal space
of c, we have 1 = x(1) = x(B

B) = x(B) x(

B) = [x(B)[
2
. Therefore, [x(B)[ = 1.
Theorem 21 ([11, Theorem 2.6]). Every c-invertible inner function is a nite product of
thin interpolating Blaschke products.
Of course, every inner function that is a nite product of thin interpolating Blaschke products
is invertible in c by denition. So, if u is a uniform limit of a nite product of thin interpolating
Blaschke products, then each element of the sequence is an inner function invertible in c and
therefore u will be too. Therefore, u will be a nite product of thin interpolating Blaschke
PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 791
products. From this, it is easy to see that if u is a nite product of thin interpolating Blaschke
products and
a
is a M obius transformation, then
a
u is again a nite product of thin
interpolating Blaschke products.
Lemma 22. If B is a nite product of thin Blaschke products and C is an inner function
with |C B| < 1, then C is also a nite product of thin Blaschke products.
Proof. This result is a corollary of Theorem 21: let x M(c) and suppose x(C) = 0. Then
[x(B)[ < 1. By the comments preceding the proof of this lemma, x / M(c). So C is invertible
in / and therefore C is a nite product of thin interpolating Blaschke products.
Lemma 22 may also be deduced using Rouches theorem on a pseudohyperbolic disk around
the zeros.
For C a nite product of thin Blaschke products, the number of zeros of C L
y
in the disk
is bounded above by a constant N independent of y, by Lemma 6. Therefore, we may choose
a point x M(H

) such that C L
x
has the maximum number of zeros.
The next result suggests that nite products of thin Blaschke products can be semiprime in
only the obvious ways. To make this result work, we need to assume that our Blaschke product
looks prime on a Gleason part. This will always be approximately true, as we will see in
Theorem 25, the main theorem in this section. The next result will be needed in the proof of
Theorem 25, but this representation is of sucient interest to isolate this as a theorem.
Theorem 23. If C is an interpolating Blaschke product that is a nite product of thin
Blaschke products satisfying C L
x
is prime for some x M(H

) for which C L
x
has the
maximum number of zeros and C(x) = 0, then either C is prime, C = U V with V nite, or
C = U V with U nite and V thin. Moreover, in the latter case, this factorization of C is
unique up to composition with M obius transformations.
Proof. Without loss of generality, we may suppose C(0) = 0. Suppose that C is not prime
and not of the form U V with V nite. Then C = U V with U nite and of degree greater
than 1, since C is semiprime. Now we have x M(H

) with C(x) = 0 and C L

x
has the
maximum number of zeros. We may suppose V (x) = 0. Note that then 0 = C(x) = U(V (x))
implies U(0) = 0, so V is a subproduct of C. Since C(x) = 0, we know C L
x
=

n
j=1
(c
j

L
x
) = b where b(z) =

m
j=1

a
j
(z), c
j
L
x
(z) =
a
j
(z) for j = 1, . . . , m and the product of
the remaining factors is for some T. Now x is a nontrivial point and C vanishes at 0 and
x so we may suppose c
1
(0) = c
1
(x) = 0. Note that since U is nite we must have [V (x)[ < 1
and (C L
x
) = U(V L
x
). Therefore, since we assume that C L
x
is prime and the degree of
U is greater than 1, V L
x
is degree 1. Thus, V has one zero in the part and we nd that U
has m > 1 zeros and, by Lemma 5, U(z) = C(L
x
(z)) for some T.
Consider any other y M(H

) for which C(y) = 0. Then, since U is nite, we must have

[V (y)[ < 1 and C L
y
= U (V L
y
). If V L
y
has more than one zero, then C L
y
would
have more than m zeros. So if [V (y)[ < 1, then we see that V has exactly one zero in the
part. Since V is a subproduct of C, it is a nite product of thin Blaschke products. By
Gorkin, Lingenberg and Mortini [9, Lemma 3.1, Theorem 3.2], we see that V must be thin.
Therefore, C = U V with U nite and V thin, as desired. Now we claim that this factorization
is unique.
Suppose that we have a second factorization of C = X Y . Then X must be nite, so we
must have [Y (x)[ < 1. We may suppose C = X Y with C(x) = Y (x) = 0 and X(0) = 0. As
792 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
above, we have that Y is thin and a subproduct of C. Since Y (x) = 0, we have C L
x
(z) =
X(z) = U(z) for some z. So we may write X(z) = U(z) for some T. Thus,
U(Y (z)) = U(V (z)),
where Y and V are thin and Y (x) = V (x) = 0. If V (w) = 0 for some w D and Y (w) ,= 0,
then U(Y (w)) = 0 implies Y (w) =

a
j
where a
j
is a zero of U.
Now we assume that C is interpolating and Y and V are both subproducts of C vanishing at
x. By Homan [14, Theorem 5.3], x is in the closure of the zero sequences (y
n
) and (v
n
) of Y
and V , respectively, and there exist subnets (y
n
k
) and (v
n
k
) such that (y
n
k
, v
n
k
) 0. But
C is interpolating and (C) := inf
{n:C(z
n
)=0}

j=n
(z
j
, z
n
) > 0 implies that if y
n
,= v
m
and
C(y
n
) = C(v
m
) = 0, then (y
n
, v
m
) (C). Therefore, Y (z
j
) = V (z
j
) = 0 for innitely many
j. Writing Y
1
= Y, we have
U(Y
1
(z)) = U(V (z)), Y
1
(z
j
) = 0, V (z
j
) = 0.
Since C is interpolating, 0 is not a critical point of U. So U is invertible on a neighborhood
around 0 and we conclude Y
1
(z) = V (z) on a neighborhood about z
j
. Therefore, Y
1
= V
everywhere.
So for this C there is (essentially) only one factorization possible, namely C = U V where
C L
x
(z) = U(z) for some T, establishing the result.
We now prove the main result of this section: prime Blaschke products are dense in the set
of nite products of thin Blaschke products. In this proof, we will reduce the problem to a
question about Blaschke products that are a product of two thin Blaschke products. To handle
the nal case, we will need the following lemma.
Lemma 24. If C = U V with U a degree-2 Blaschke product having zeros at 0 and a D
and V thin, then for any y M(H

) D if C(y) = 0, then C L
y
can have zeros only at 0
and b where [b[ = [a[.
Proof. Note that for
a
(z) = (z a)/(1 az), we have
1
a
(z) = (z +a)/(1 + az) and that
both V and
a
V are thin. We assume C = V (
a
(V )) and C(y) = 0.
If V (y) = 0, then V L
y
(z) = z for some T and C L
y
(z) = z
a
(z). Therefore,
C L
y
has zeros at 0 and

a.
If (
a
V )(y) = 0, then
a
(V L
y
)(z) = (
a
V ) L
y
(z) =
1
z and
V L
y
(z) =
1
a
(
1
z) =

1
z +a
1 + a
1
z
,
and the result follows.
Theorem 25. If B is a nite product of thin Blaschke products, then B can be
approximated by prime Blaschke products.
Proof. By composing with a M obius transformation, we may suppose B(0) = 0. We drop
one zero of B to obtain the Blaschke product B
1
, choosing the zero to drop so that B
1
still
vanishes at 0. Now we show how to move the zeros slightly so that we have an approximating
Blaschke product C that cannot be written as U V with V nite and such that C L
x
is
prime for some x M(H

) for which C L
x
has the maximum number of zeros.
We know that for > 0, there exists an interpolating Blaschke product C with C(0) = 0 and
|B
1
C| < < 1 (see [16]). By Lemma 22, C is also a nite product of thin Blaschke products.
PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 793
Write C = c
1
c
2
c
n
with c
j
thin. Choose x M(H

) with C(x) = 0 and such that C L

x
has
the maximum number of zeros. Since C(x) = 0, we know C L
x
=

n
j=1
(c
j
L
x
) = b where
b(z) =

m
j=1

a
j
(z), c
j
L
x
(z) =
a
j
(z) for j = 1, . . . , m and the product of the remaining
factors is for some T. Now C vanishes at x so we may suppose c
1
(0) = c
1
(x) = 0. Thus,
for j = 2, . . . , n we may choose w
j
close to zero according to Theorem 8 and Corollary 9 so
that
w
j
c
j
L
x
=
j

j
for
j
T, |
w
j
c
j
c
j
| is as small as we wish, and

n
j=1

j
is
prime. In the case C L
x
has three or more zeros, which we denote by 0, z
1
, . . . , z
m1
, we
may (by adjusting the pseudohyperbolic distance between zeros of C L
x
) assume that the
zeros of C L
x
have the property that if, for T, the mapping
w
permutes the zeros of
C L
x
, then w = 0. Therefore, the zeros of C L
x
cannot be mapped to each other by any
M obius transformation other than the trivial one.
Using Theorem 8, we move one zero of C slightly to assume that C is not of the form U V
with V nite. We note that this move can, at most, rotate C L
x
, so it does not change the
fact that C L
x
is prime; this new C will still approximate B
1
,
w
will still not permute
the zeros of C L
x
for any w ,= 0, T and we may still assume that C is interpolating
(see [16] or [13, Lemma 3.15] for an explicit statement and proof of how to approximate a
nite product of interpolating Blaschke products by an interpolating Blaschke product). If C
is prime; then we are done. If not, then given our assumptions and Theorem 23 we know
C = U V with U nite and V thin. Multiplying by a constant of modulus 1, we may assume
U(z) = z

n
j=1
((z a
j
)/(1 a
j
z)) and U(0) = V (0) = 0.
Now we are ready to choose D: we will choose close to the dropped zero of B so that
|

C B| is as small as we want so that the following conditions hold.

(a) The function

C cannot be factored as X Y with Y nite.

(b) Recalling that we have chosen x M(H

) with C(x) = V (x) = 0 and such that C L

x
has the maximum number of zeros, and the nitely many zeros of C L
x
are denoted by
0, z
1
, . . . , z
m1
, we choose D so that the subproducts V
j
of C with at most nitely many
zeros dierent from those of V have the property [V
j
()[ ,= [z
k
[ for any j, k. This choice is
possible because there are only countably many such V
j
and the Baire category theorem then
implies that the set of such is dense.
(c) Additionally, choose so that we also have [(C/Z)()[ ,= [(C/Z)(v
j
)[ for any zero, v
j
,
of V , and Blaschke products Z such that V and Z are subproducts of C that have at most
nitely many dierent zeros. There are, up to rotation, only countably many such Z since there
are countably many ways to specify the diering zeros and the possible rotation constants in
front are handled by the absolute values.
In what follows, for y M(H

) D we let

(y) =

y
T and we note that if m M(H

)
and y(z) = m(z), where z denotes the identity function, then

m
=

y
. Note that we may
make |B

C| as small as we wish and so, if

C is prime, then we are again done.

If not, then we may apply Proposition 7 and assume

C = X Y with X(0) = Y (0) = 0,

and since

C is not prime and

C cannot be factored as X Y with Y nite, by Theorem 23

we know that Y is thin. Since C is a nite product of thin Blaschke products, C is semiprime
and X must be nite. So, since C(x) = 0 we must have [Y (x)[ < 1. Composing with a M obius
transformation, we may assume Y (x) = 0 (we may no longer assume Y (0) = 0, but our new
X and Y satisfy X(0) = X(Y (x)) = C(x) = 0 so Y is still a subfactor of C). So (

L
x
)(C
L
x
)(z) = X(z) for some T. Therefore,

x
U(z) = X(z) and so there exists T such
that

x
U(z) = X(z). (4)
Suppose that there are innitely many zeros of V , call them v
j
, on which Y does not
vanish. Note that V and Y are, up to one possible factor, subproducts of the interpolating
Blaschke product C. Then there is a point y M(H

) in the closure of v
j
at which V (y) = 0.
794 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
If Y (y) = 0, then we would have y in the closure of the zeros y
j
of Y . Therefore, y is in the
closure of v
j
(a subset on which Y does not vanish) and y
j
(a subset of the zeros of Y ),
which are two disjoint subsets of the zeros of the interpolating Blaschke product C. Since
C is interpolating, Homans theorem [15, Theorem 6.1] tells us that disjoint subsets of an
interpolating sequence have disjoint closures, and we have obtained a contradiction. Thus,
Y (y) ,= 0. So, using equation (4) we obtain

y
U(
V
z) = ((

L
y
)(U(V L
y
))(z)
= (

C) L
y
(z) = X(Y L
y
)(z) =

x
U(
Y

w
(z)), (5)
for some w D 0 and
V
,
Y
,

y
T. Replacing z by

V
z, we have for some
1
T and
w
1
,= 0,
U(z) =

x
U((
1

w
1
)(z)) =

x
U(
1

w
1
(z)).
So U(a) = 0 if and only if U(
1

w
1
(a)) = 0 and
1

w
1
would permute the zeros of U. By our
assumptions, this is impossible if U has degree 3 or higher. Therefore, if U has degree at least
3, then at most nitely many zeros of Y can be dierent from the zeros of V . We now show
that our choice of implies that this is impossible before handling the case in which U has
degree 2.
We claim Y () ,= 0. If not, then write Y =

Y
1
and note that we have shown that there
are at most nitely many zeros of Y
1
that are zeros of C but not zeros of V , and the same
argument shows that there can be at most nitely many zeros of V that are zeros of C but not
zeros of Y
1
. Then

C = X Y = Y (X
1
Y ) =

Y
1
(X
1
Y ).
Thus, C/Y
1
= X
1
Y and (C/Y
1
)() = X
1
(Y ()) = X
1
(0) = X
1
(Y (v
j
)) = (C/Y
1
)(v
j
) for
some zero, v
j
, of V , but we chose so that this is not possible.
Thus, Y () ,= 0 and our argument above shows that Y is a subfactor of C that diers from
V by at most nitely many factors. Therefore,
0 = [(

C)()[ = [X(Y ())[ = [U( Y ())[,

from equation (4). So, we have [Y ()[ = [z
j
[ for some zero z
j
of U, again contradicting our
choice of in (b) above. Therefore, if the degree of U is at least 3, then we conclude that

C
is prime and approximates B.
So we may suppose that U has degree 2 or less. Then we know that U can be written
U(z) = z
_
z a
1 az
_
,
with a ,= 0.
Suppose that C has (at least) two points of discontinuity. Then there exist y
1
and y
2
in two
dierent bers such that V (y
1
) = V (y
2
) = 0 and max[Y (y
1
)[, [Y (y
2
)[ < 1. Composing with
L
y
1
and L
y
2
, we have (V L
y
j
)(z) =
j
z and (Y L
y
j
)(z) =
j

w
j
(z) for some
j
,
j
T and
w
j
D.
Thus, since
(

(U V ))(z) = (

C)(z) = (X Y )(z) =

x
(U( Y (z))),
we use equation (5) and write

j
=
j
to obtain

y
j

j
z

j
z a
1 a
j
z
=

w
j
(z)
_

w
j
(z) a
1 a

w
j
(z)
_
.
Note that since C is interpolating, a ,= 0. Now there are two possibilities: either w
j
= 0 or
w
j
= a

j
and each leads to the conclusion that

y
=

x
, which cannot happen on both
PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 795
the ber over y
1
and y
2
. Therefore C, and hence B, can have at most one discontinuity, which
must be in the ber over x.
We will modify

C slightly, obtaining for each > 0 a Blaschke product C

that has the

property that our new C

approximates B, C

cannot be written as X
0
Y
0
with Y
0
nite and
C

(0) = 0. We begin with

C = X Y .
We factor Y = V
1
V
2
with V
1
and V
2
both innite, V
1
(0) = 0 and V
2
(x) = 0, x M(H

) D.
Thus, since Y is thin, V
1
L
x
(z) =
1
for all z D, V
2
L
x
(z) =
2
z and Y L
x
(z) =
1

2
z
where [
j
[ = 1. For > 0 (to be chosen later), consider
Y

= V
1

(V
2
).
We may need to change one zero of V
1
slightly, but this will only rotate V
1
on M(H

) D.
So our C

will look like

C

= W

V
2
)
_
Y a
1 aY
_
, (6)
where W

has one zero that diers from a zero of V

1
and Y = V
1
V
2
. We will choose later so
that C

is also prime.
Now, we know V
1
L
x
=
1
and
1
is independent of . We may change the nonzero zero
of X (that is, a) very slightly, if necessary, to assume '(

1
a) ,= 0. As mentioned above, if
necessary, we move one zero of V
1
to obtain W

, so that we may still assume that our new

Blaschke product,
C

= W

V
2
)(
a
Y ),
cannot be factored as X
1
Y
1
with Y
1
nite. Note that W

L
x
=

, say, and all other

constants remain the same. Thus, if C

= X

with X

(0) = Y

(0) = 0, then Y

is an
(innite) thin Blaschke product, X

has degree 2 and so X

(z) = z

(z). We may do this

so that C

is still interpolating (see [13, Lemma 3.15] or [16]).

We show [

[ = [a[: by Lemma 24, if y M(H

) D and C

(y) = 0, then C

L
y
(w) = 0
implies that either w = 0 or [w[ = [

[. On the other hand, if we choose y so that C

(y) =
V
1
(y) = 0, then
V
1
L
y
(z) =
1
z, V
2
L
y
(z) =
2
and Y L
y
(z) =
1

2
z.
Thus, W

L
y
(z) =

z and we have
C

L
y
(z) =

2
z
_

1

2
z a
1
1

2
az
_
.
Thus, [a[ = [
1

2
a[ = [

[, as claimed.
Now recall that we chose x so that V
1
L
x
=
1
and V
2
L
x
(z) =
2
z. Therefore, there exists
y

in the Gleason part of x with

V
2
(y

) = 0.
So,
V
1
L
y

=
1
,
since V
1
is constant on the Gleason part of x, and we also know that (

V
2
) L
y

(z) =
2,
z,
with [
2,
[ = 1; also, W

L
x
=

, and
Y L
y

(z) = ((V
1
L
y

)(V
2
L
y

)(z)) =
1

(
2,
z) =
1

2,
z +
1 +
2,
z
.
Therefore,
C

L
y

(z) =

2,
z
_

1
((
2,
z +)/(1 +
2,
z)) a
1 a
1
((
2,
z +)/(1 +
2,
z))
_
.
796 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
But we know C

L
y

(w) = 0 implies w = 0 or [w[ = [

[ = [a[. So if w ,= 0, then

2,
w +
1 +
2,
w
= a.
Since [w[ = [a[, we obtain [
2,
w

1
a
2,
w[ = [

1
a [, whence
[a[[1

1
a[ = [

1
a [.
Squaring both sides and solving for , we nd = 2'(

1
a)/(1 +[a[
2
). By our choice of a,
we know '(

1
a) ,= 0, so we may choose arbitrarily small if '(

1
a) < 0 and we may choose
< '(

1
a)/(1 +[a[
2
) otherwise and we see that C

cannot be factored as X

.
Thus, our choice of yields C

prime and we may approximate B using C

.
7. Examples
In the table provided in the introduction, there is no example of a surjective inner function
that is not semiprime. We present such an example below.
Example 26. There exists a surjective Blaschke product that is not semiprime.
Proof. Let B and C be thin Blaschke products. Since
w
B is thin, we know that
w
B
is always a Blaschke product for every w D and so we can always nd a solution to B(z) = w.
Thus, B is surjective. Consequently, B C is surjective. If B C is not a Blaschke product, then
we can compose with a Mobius transformation via Frostmans theorem to obtain a surjective
Blaschke product. Since B C is not semiprime, we have the desired example.
Recall that a Blaschke product is called a uniform Frostman Blaschke product if its zero
sequence satises
sup
T

n=1
1 [a
n
[
[ a
n
[
< for all T.
In [8], the question was posed as to whether every uniform Frostman Blaschke product is
semiprime. In Corollary 18, we showed that every uniform Frostman Blaschke product can
be multiplied into the class of semiprime functions with a power of z. Here, we show that a
Frostman (not necessarily uniform) Blaschke product, need not be semiprime. Actually, we
show a bit more: a theorem of Frostman [7] says that a Blaschke product has nite angular
derivative at a point T if and only if

j=1
1 [a
n
[
[ a
n
[
2
< ,
where a
n
is the zero sequence of the Blaschke product B. We will call this condition the
Frostman angular derivative condition, or condition (FA). We present the following example.
Example 27. There exists a Blaschke product with nite angular derivative everywhere
that is not semiprime.
Proof. Take v to be a Blaschke product with singularity at the point 1 only, with nite
angular derivative everywhere, that is, satisfying condition (FA), and with the property that
v is real on the real axis and v(r) 1 as r 1. (To do this, we choose the zeros of v in
PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 797
conjugate pairs.) Since v has a single singularity, there is a countable sequence of angles with
vertex on T at which v has radial limit 1. We will choose u with nite angular derivative
everywhere, continuous at all points of T 1 and satisfying u(0) = 0. Since we assume that
v is real on the real axis and since v satises condition (FA), we know that v(r) must tend to
1 or 1, as r +1 or r 1. We claim that u v has nite angular derivative at every point
of the circle.
First note that when re
i
e
i
for ,= 0, we know that v(re
i
) tends to v(e
i
) and v is
analytic about e
i
. Therefore, v is conformal (angle preserving) at e
i
. Since we assume that u
has nite angular derivative everywhere, we see that u v has nite angular derivative at e
i
for ,= 0.
Now suppose r
n
1. Then, from our choice of v, we know that v(r
n
) tends to 1. Since u
has nite radial limit everywhere, we know (u v)(r
n
) tends to a point T. We also have
(1 [v(r
n
)[)/(1 [r
n
[)
v
< .
Since we assume that u has nite angular derivative everywhere, we also know
lim
n
1 [u(v(r
n
))[
1 [v(r
n
)[
exists and is nite. Thus,
1 [(u v)(r
n
)[
1 [r
n
[
< .
By the JuliaCaratheodory theorem [20, p. 57], u v has nite angular derivative at the point
1 and our claim is established.
Since all nontangential limits exist and are of modulus 1, we see that u v is a Blaschke
product with nite angular derivative at each point of the unit circle and it is neither prime
nor semiprime.
Recall that a Blaschke product B is locally thin at a point m M(H

) D if lim

(1
[z
n

[
2
)[B

(z
n

)[ = 1 whenever (z
n

) is a net of zeros of B, converging to m. We will assume

B(0) = 0. Given our work in the previous section, we might expect that a locally thin inner
function is also semiprime. This is, however, not the case and an example will be presented
below.
Example 28. There exists a Blaschke product I that is locally thin at a point m but not
semiprime.
Proof. Let b be a thin Blaschke product with zeros (z
n
) converging to the point 1 such
that b has nite angular derivative (necessarily nonzero by the JuliaCaratheodory theorem)
at the point 1. Then b

(1) = T. Let (a
n
) be any sequence with a
n
1 nontangentially.
Then b(a
n
) = w
n
and w
n
. Passing to a subsequence, we may suppose that (w
n
) is a thin
interpolating sequence. Let c denote the thin Blaschke product with zeros (w
n
).
We claim that c b is locally thin at any point in the closure of (a
n
). To see this, note that
c(b(a
n
)) = 0 and
(1 [a
n
[
2
)([(c b)

(a
n
)[) = (1 [a
n
[
2
)[c

(b(a
n
))[[b

(a
n
)[
= ((1 [w
n
[
2
)[c

(w
n
)[)
_
1 [a
n
[
2
1 [b(a
n
)[
2
[b

(a
n
)[
_
.
Now the rst term tends to 1, because we have chosen c thin and c(w
n
) = 0. For the
second term, letting d(1) = lim
z1
(1 [b(z)[)/(1 [z[) denote the nontangential limit, we have
798 I. CHALENDAR, P. GORKIN AND J. R. PARTINGTON
[b

(1)[ = [d(1)[, by the JuliaCaratheodory theorem (see [3, Theorem 2.44]). Since 0 < [d(1)[ <
, we see that the second term also tends to 1 in modulus. Therefore, we have
(1 [a
n
[
2
)([(c b)

(a
n
)[) 1,
and c b is locally thin, but not semiprime.
In [8], the authors showed that thin Blaschke products were semiprime, but were not able to
obtain similar results for Blaschke products that were thin on an proper interval J T. The
example below shows that such Blaschke products can also be prime.
Theorem 29. Let C = Bb where b is a thin Blaschke product with zeros converging at
each point of an interval I and B is a Blaschke product with singularities forming a set of
measure zero contained in T I. Then C is prime.
Proof. Note that the set of discontinuities of a Blaschke product is a closed set. Without
loss of generality, B is continuous on an interval

J T with 1 J. Let

J
1
J and let b be
thin with a discontinuity at each point of

J
1
and nowhere else. Any thin sequence clustering
precisely on the arc will do, and such a sequence can be created by choosing a countable dense
subset of points on the arc and a thin sequence in D converging to these points.
Suppose that Bb is not semiprime. Then Bb = U V where neither U nor V is continuous.
Since bB is a Blaschke product, if U had a singular inner factor, then bB would as well.
Therefore, we know that U is a Blaschke product. Composing with a M obius transformation,
we may assume U(0) = 0 and therefore V , as a factor of bB, is also a Blaschke product.
Claim 30. We claim that V is continuous at each point of

J
1
.
Suppose that V is discontinuous at a point

J
1
. Then there is a sequence a
j
along
which V (a
j
) = V L
a
j
(0) = 0. Since bB is either a constant of modulus 1 or c(z a)/(1 az)
for some a D and c T on each part over , we see that V L
a
j
must tend to a nonconstant
self-mapping of the unit disk, W, uniformly on compact sets. Now we assume (bB) L
a
j
=
U(V L
a
j
) and there is a constant c of modulus 1 such that c(z a)/(1 az) = U W (see
[15, Lemma 6.3]) and, consequently, U is continuous, a contradiction. So we may assume that
V is continuous on

J
1
, completing the proof of the claim.
Since we know that V is continuous about 1, we may compose V with a rotation and
assume V (1) = 1. Since V is continuous precisely where V is continuous, we may assume
bB = U V with V continuous on

J
1
and V (1) = 1.
Note that since we assume that 1 is a xed point of V , we have J
1
V (J
1
) ,= and there is
an open interval about 1, call it J
0
, with

J
0
J
1
V (J
1
).
Claim 31. There is no point w T

J
1
at which B is continuous and = V

(w) J
0
.
Suppose not. First note that if w T

J
1
, then b is continuous at w. Therefore, if we choose
w T

J
1
with B continuous at w, then we know that bB and therefore V are continuous
at w.
So we are assuming that there exists w T

J
1
with = V

(w), V is continuous at w,
and J
0
. Now, since J
0
J
1
V (J
1
) we know = V

() for some J
1
. But bB is
discontinuous at and we can nd a
j
Z
D
(bB) with a
j
; that is, V (a
j
) Z
D
(U). Note that
since V is continuous at , we have V (a
j
) V

() = . Further, the fact that V is continuous

PRIME AND SEMIPRIME INNER FUNCTIONS 799
at w implies that V is analytic on an interval about w. So V (a
j
) , V

(w) = and V

is
analytic about w. Therefore, we can nd z
j
w with V (z
j
) = V (a
j
) (eventually). But then
z
j
w and (bB)(z
j
) = (U V )(z
j
) = U(V (a
j
)) = 0.
Therefore, B is discontinuous at w, a contradiction, and we have established Claim 31.
Claim 32. The function V is continuous on T.
By Claim 31, [V + 1[ < < 2 for some < 2 a.e. on T J
1
. Suppose that there is a point
w
0
T

J
1
such that 1 is in the cluster set of V at w
0
. Let g be a continuous function that
peaks at w
0
(g(w
0
) = 1 and [g(w)[ < 1 for w ,= w
0
). Raising g to a high enough power, we can
make g as small as we wish on

J
1
, so we may assume [g(V + 1)[ < < 2 a.e. on the unit circle.
Since g(V + 1) H

, integrating against the Poisson kernel we nd [g(z)(V (z) + 1)[ < 2

for all z D. Let z
j
w
0
. Then g(z
j
) 1 and lim
j
[V (z
j
) + 1[ < 2 so we cannot have 1
in the cluster set of V at w
0
. But the cluster set of an inner function that is discontinuous at
a point on the boundary must be the closed unit disk, so V must be continuous at every point
of T J
1
. Since it is continuous on

J
1
as well, V is continuous everywhere.
Claim 33. The function V is a M obius transformation.
Suppose that V is not one-to-one. Now for any point z
1
on the circle, there is a second
(consecutive) point, z
2
, for which V (z
1
) = V (z
2
). Now V maps the arc of the unit circle
connecting these two points onto the unit circle.
If z
1
, z
2


J
1
, then there is a point that V maps to a point of continuity of U in the arc. But
V is continuous on J and therefore U V = bB is continuous at that point as well, which is
impossible because b is discontinuous at every point of

J
1
.
Now suppose z
1
, z
2
T

J
1
. Recall that V maps the interval from z
1
to z
2
onto the circle.
In particular, since V is continuous, it maps some interval between z
1
and z
2
onto J
0
. Since B
is continuous a.e., there is a point w D

J
1
such that V

(w) J
0
and B is continuous at w.
This contradicts Claim 31.
Therefore, if V (z
1
) = V (z
2
), then we must have z
1


J
1
and z
2
T

J
1
. So we can nd
a point of continuity of bB, w T

J
1
such that V (w) = V () for some

J
1
. But

J
1
implies that bB is discontinuous at and therefore we can nd a
j
with U(V (a
j
)) = 0 and
a
j
. Since V is continuous then V (a
j
) V () = V (w). As above, since V is analytic about
w, we can nd z
j
w with V (a
j
) = V (z
j
). Thus, we have found z
j
w with U(V (z
j
)) =
U(V (a
j
)) = 0 and w must be a point of discontinuity of bB, a contradiction.
So bB is prime.
Acknowledgements. The authors are also grateful to the referees for their careful reading
of the paper and their many useful comments.
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Isabelle Chalendar
Institut Camille Jordan
Universite de Lyon, CNRS
Universite de Lyon 1
INSA de Lyon
Ecole Centrale de Lyon CNRS
UMR 5208
43 bld. du 11 novembre 1918
F-69622 Villeurbanne cedex
France
chalenda@math

univ-lyon1

fr
Pamela Gorkin
Department of Mathematics
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA 17837
USA
pgorkin@bucknell

edu
Jonathan R. Partington
School of Mathematics
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
United Kingdom
j

partington@leeds

ac

uk