Algebras Generated by Holomorphic and Harmonic Functions on the Disc

Let E be a subset of the boundary of the open unit disc D, andlet A be the algebra of bounded holomorphic functions on D thatextend continuously to D E. It is shown that if f is a boundedharmonic function on D that extends continuously to D E andis not holomorphic, then the uniformly closed algebra A[f] generatedby A and f contains . This result contains as special cases a result on the disc algebradue to irka and a result on H(D due to Axler and Shields. Astronger form of the result, in which f is allowed to have discontinuitieson a small subset of E, is also established. 2000 MathematicsSubject Classification 46J10, 46J15, 30H05.