Norms and spectral radii of linear fractional composition operators on the ball

Abstract

We give a new proof that every linear fractional map of the unit ball induces a bounded composition operator on the standard scale of Hilbert function spaces on the ball, and obtain norm bounds analogous to the standard one-variable estimates. We also show that Cowen's one-variable spectral radius formula extends to these operators. The key observation underlying these results is that every linear fractional map of the ball belongs to the Schur-Agler class.