Densely Defined Multiplication on the Sobolev Space

Abstract

Following Sarason's classification of the densely defined multiplication operators over the Hardy space, we classify the densely defined multipliers over the Sobolev space, $W^{1,2}[0,1]$. In this paper we find that the collection of such multipliers for the Sobolev space is exactly the Sobolev space itself. This sharpens a result of Shields concerning bounded multipliers. The densely defined multiplication operators over the subspace $W_0 = \{f \in W^{1,2}[0,1] : f(0)=f(1)=0 \}$ are also classified. In this case the densely defined multiplication operators can be written as a ratio of functions in $W_0$ where the denominator is non-vanishing. This is proved using a contructive argument.