On the spaces of bounded and compact multiplicative Hankel operators

A multiplicative Hankel operator is an operator with matrix representation $M(alpha) = {alpha(nm)}_{n,m=1}^infty$, where $alpha$ is the generating sequence of $M(alpha)$. Let $mathcal{M}$ and $mathcal{M}_0$ denote the spaces of bounded and compact multiplicative Hankel operators, respectively. In this note it is shown that the distance from an operator $M(alpha) in mathcal{M}$ to the compact operators is minimized by a nonunique compact multiplicative Hankel operator $N(beta) in mathcal{M}_0$, $$|M(alpha) - N(beta)|_{mathcal{B}(ell^2(mathbb{N}))} = inf left {|M(alpha) - K |_{mathcal{B}(ell^2(mathbb{N}))} , : , K colon ell^2(mathbb{N}) to ell^2(mathbb{N}) textrm{ compact} right}.$$ Intimately connected with this result, it is then proven that the bidual of $mathcal{M}_0$ is isometrically isomorphic to $mathcal{M}$, $mathcal{M}_0^{ast ast} simeq mathcal{M}$. It follows that $mathcal{M}_0$ is an M-ideal in $mathcal{M}$. The dual space $mathcal{M}_0^ast$ is isometrically isomorphic to a projective tensor product with respect to Dirichlet convolution. The stated results are also valid for small Hankel operators on the Hardy space $H^2(mathbb{D}^d)$ of a finite polydisk.