The Friedrichs Operator and Circular Domains

The Friedrichs operator of a domain (in ${\mathbb{C}}^n$) is closely related to its Bergman projection and encodes crucial information (geometric, quadrature, potential theoretic etc.) about the domain. We show that the Friedrichs operator of a domain has rank one if the domain can be covered by a circular domain via a proper holomorphic map of finite multiplicity whose Jacobian is a homogeneous polynomial. As an application, we show that the Friedrichs operator is of rank one on the tetrablock, pentablock, and the symmetrized polydisc - domains of significance in the study of $\mu$-synthesis in control theory.