A geometric proof of the circular maximal theorem (Q1974832)

A famous result of Bourgain states that the circular maximal function \[ Mf(x) := \sup_{1 \leq t \leq 2} \int_{S^1} |f(x-t\omega)|d\omega \] is bounded on \(L^p(\mathbb R^2)\) for all \(p>2\). There have been several proofs of this estimate, but previous arguments have utilized the Fourier transform and the connection between circular averages and the wave equation. The author presents a proof of Bourgain's circular maximal theorem which relies purely on geometric combinatorial arguments. A key fact used in the proof is Marstrand's three circle lemma, which is a quantitative (\(\delta\)-discretized) version of Apollonius' theorem, which states that given three generic circles, there are at most two other circles which are tangent to all three given circles. The author also generalizes Bourgain's circular maximal inequality to \((L^p,L^q)\) estimates. It is not known whether the maximal function maps \(L^{5/2}\) to \(L^5\), however such an estimate would be sharp, and the author uses the above techniques to show that any interpolant between this estimate and Bourgain's inequality is true. (This result was already shown using bilinear Fourier methods by the author and C. Sogge).