Semicrossed Products of the Disk Algebra and the Jacobson Radical

Abstract

Abstract We consider semicrossed products of the disk algebra with respect to endomorphisms defined by finite Blaschke products. We characterize the Jacobson radical of these operator algebras. Furthermore, in the case that the finite Blaschke product is elliptic, we show that the semicrossed product contains no nonzero quasinilpotent elements. However, if the finite Blaschke product is hyperbolic or parabolic with positive hyperbolic step, the Jacobson radical is nonzero and a proper subset of the set of quasinilpotent elements.