Muckenhoupt weights
In mathematics, the class of Muckenhoupt weights Template:Math consists of those weights Template:Mvar for which the Hardy–Littlewood maximal operator is bounded on Template:Math. Specifically, we consider functions Template:Math on Template:Math and their associated maximal functions Template:Math defined as
where Template:Math is the ball in Template:Math with radius Template:Mvar and center at Template:Mvar. Let Template:Math, we wish to characterise the functions Template:Math for which we have a bound
where Template:Mvar depends only on Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar. This was first done by Benjamin Muckenhoupt.[1]
Definition
For a fixed Template:Math, we say that a weight Template:Math belongs to Template:Math if Template:Mvar is locally integrable and there is a constant Template:Mvar such that, for all balls Template:Mvar in Template:Math, we have
where Template:Math is the Lebesgue measure of Template:Mvar, and Template:Mvar is a real number such that: Template:Math.
We say Template:Math belongs to Template:Math if there exists some Template:Mvar such that
for almost every Template:Math and all balls Template:Mvar.[2]
Equivalent characterizations
This following result is a fundamental result in the study of Muckenhoupt weights.
- Theorem. Let Template:Math. A weight Template:Mvar is in Template:Math if and only if any one of the following hold.[2]
- (a) The Hardy–Littlewood maximal function is bounded on Template:Math, that is
- for some Template:Mvar which only depends on Template:Mvar and the constant Template:Mvar in the above definition.
- (b) There is a constant Template:Mvar such that for any locally integrable function Template:Math on Template:Math, and all balls Template:Mvar:
- where:
Equivalently:
- Theorem. Let Template:Math, then Template:Math if and only if both of the following hold:
This equivalence can be verified by using Jensen's Inequality.
Reverse Hölder inequalities and Template:Math
The main tool in the proof of the above equivalence is the following result.[2] The following statements are equivalent
- Template:Math for some Template:Math.
- There exist Template:Math such that for all balls Template:Mvar and subsets Template:Math, Template:Math implies Template:Math.
- There exist Template:Math and Template:Mvar (both depending on Template:Mvar) such that for all balls Template:Mvar we have:
We call the inequality in the third formulation a reverse Hölder inequality as the reverse inequality follows for any non-negative function directly from Hölder's inequality. If any of the three equivalent conditions above hold we say Template:Mvar belongs to Template:Math.
Weights and BMO
The definition of an Template:Math weight and the reverse Hölder inequality indicate that such a weight cannot degenerate or grow too quickly. This property can be phrased equivalently in terms of how much the logarithm of the weight oscillates:
- (a) If Template:Math then Template:Math (i.e. Template:Math has bounded mean oscillation).
- (b) If Template:Math, then for sufficiently small Template:Math, we have Template:Math for some Template:Math.
This equivalence can be established by using the exponential characterization of weights above, Jensen's inequality, and the John–Nirenberg inequality.
Note that the smallness assumption on Template:Math in part (b) is necessary for the result to be true, as Template:Math, but:
is not in any Template:Math.
Further properties
Here we list a few miscellaneous properties about weights, some of which can be verified from using the definitions, others are nontrivial results:
- If Template:Math, then Template:Math defines a doubling measure: for any ball Template:Mvar, if Template:Math is the ball of twice the radius, then Template:Math where Template:Math is a constant depending on Template:Mvar.
- If Template:Math, then there is Template:Math such that Template:Math.
- If Template:Math, then there is Template:Math and weights such that .[3]
Boundedness of singular integrals
It is not only the Hardy–Littlewood maximal operator that is bounded on these weighted Template:Math spaces. In fact, any Calderón-Zygmund singular integral operator is also bounded on these spaces.[4] Let us describe a simpler version of this here.[2] Suppose we have an operator Template:Mvar which is bounded on Template:Math, so we have
Suppose also that we can realise Template:Mvar as convolution against a kernel Template:Mvar in the following sense: if Template:Math are smooth with disjoint support, then:
Finally we assume a size and smoothness condition on the kernel Template:Mvar:
Then, for each Template:Math and Template:Math, Template:Mvar is a bounded operator on Template:Math. That is, we have the estimate
for all Template:Math for which the right-hand side is finite.
A converse result
If, in addition to the three conditions above, we assume the non-degeneracy condition on the kernel Template:Mvar: For a fixed unit vector Template:Math
whenever with Template:Math, then we have a converse. If we know
for some fixed Template:Math and some Template:Mvar, then Template:Math.[2]
Weights and quasiconformal mappings
For Template:Math, a Template:Mvar-quasiconformal mapping is a homeomorphism Template:Math such that
where Template:Math is the derivative of Template:Math at Template:Mvar and Template:Math is the Jacobian.
A theorem of Gehring[5] states that for all Template:Mvar-quasiconformal functions Template:Math, we have Template:Math, where Template:Mvar depends on Template:Mvar.
Harmonic measure
If you have a simply connected domain Template:Math, we say its boundary curve Template:Math is Template:Mvar-chord-arc if for any two points Template:Math in Template:Math there is a curve Template:Math connecting Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar whose length is no more than Template:Math. For a domain with such a boundary and for any Template:Math in Template:Math, the harmonic measure Template:Math is absolutely continuous with respect to one-dimensional Hausdorff measure and its Radon–Nikodym derivative is in Template:Math.[6] (Note that in this case, one needs to adapt the definition of weights to the case where the underlying measure is one-dimensional Hausdorff measure).