Let $H^2(\Omega)$ be the Hardy space on a strictly pseudoconvex domain $\Omega \subset \mathbb{C}^n$, and let $A \subset L^\infty(\partial \Omega)$ denote the subalgebra of all $L^\infty$-functions $f$ with compact Hankel operator $H_f$. Given any closed subalgebra $B \subset A$ containing $C(\partial \Omega)$, we describe the first Hochschild cohomology group of the corresponding Toeplitz algebra $\mathcal(B) \subset B(H^2(\Omega))$. In particular, we show that every derivation on $\mathcal{T}(A)$ is inner. These results are new even for $n=1$, where it follows that every derivation on $\mathcal{T}(H^\infty+C)$ is inner, while there are non-inner derivations on $\mathcal{T}(H^\infty+C(\partial \mathbb{B}_n))$ over the unit ball $\mathbb{B}_n$ in dimension $n\gt 1$.

Let $A$ be a Banach algebra and $\pi \colon A \longrightarrow \mathscr L(H)$ be a continuous representation of $A$ on a separable Hilbert space $H$ with $\dim H =\frak m$. Let $\pi_{ij}$ be the coordinate functions of $\pi$ with respect to an orthonormal basis and suppose that for each $1\le j \le \frak m$, $C_j=\sum_{i=1}^{\frak m} \|\pi_{ij}\|_{A^*}\lt \infty$ and $\sup_j C_j\lt \infty$. Under these conditions, we call an element $\overline\Phi \in l^\infty (\frak m , A^{**})$ left $\pi$-invariant if $a\cdot \overline\Phi ={}^t\pi (a) \overline\Phi$ for all $a\in A$. In this paper we prove a link between the existence of left $\pi$-invariant elements and the vanishing of certain Hochschild cohomology groups of $A$. Our results extend an earlier result by Lau on $F$-algebras and recent results of Kaniuth-Lau-Pym and the second named author in the special case that $\pi \colon A \longrightarrow \mathbf C$ is a non-zero character on $A$.

We strengthen certain results concerning actions of $(\Comp,+)$ on $\Comp^{3}$ and embeddings of $\Comp^{2}$ in $\Comp^{3}$, and show that these results are in fact valid over any field of characteristic zero.