Spectral factorization in the disk algebra

Every strictly positive function f, given on the unit circle of the complex plane, defines an outer function. This article investigates the behavior of these outer functions on the boundary of the unit disk. It is shown that even if the given function f on the boundary is continuous, the corresponding outer function is generally not continuous on the closure of the unit disk. Moreover, any subset E∈ [-π ,π) of Lebesgue measure zero is a valid divergence set for outer functions of some continuous functions f. These results are applied to study the solutions of non-linear boundary-value problems and the factorization of spectral density functions.