Spectrum of composition operators on ${\mathcal S}({\mathbb R})$ with polynomial symbols

Abstract: We study the spectrum of operators in the Schwartz space of rapidly decreasing functions which associate each function with its composition with a polynomial. In the case where this operator is mean ergodic we prove that its spectrum reduces to 0, while the spectrum of any non mean ergodic composition operator with a polynomial always contains the closed unit disc except perhaps the origen. We obtain a complete description of the spectrum of the composition operator with a quadratic polynomial or a cubic polynomial with positive leading coefficient.