On Beckenbach-Radó type integral inequalities (Q1042614)

Let \(\{A_{p}(f;x,r)\}^{p}\) (respectively, \(\{M_{p}(f;x,r)\}^{p}\)) denote the mean value of \(f^{p}\) over the ball (respectively, sphere) of centre \(x\) and radius \(r\) in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\), where \(f\) is a suitable non-negative function and \(p\geq 1\). \textit{E. F. Beckenbach} and \textit{T. Radó} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 35, 662--674 (1933; Zbl 0007.13001)] proved that, for a continuous function \(f:\mathbb{R}^{2}\rightarrow (0,\infty )\), the function \(\log f\) is subharmonic if and only if \(A_{2}(f;x,r)\leq M_{1}(f;x,r)\) for every \(x\) and \(r\). The authors show that a higher dimensional version of this result is that \(f^{(n-2)/2}\) is subharmonic if and only if \(A_{n}(f;x,r)\leq M_{n-1}(f;x,r)\) for every \(x\) and \(r\). This relies on recent work of \textit{F. Hang, X. Wang} and \textit{X. Yan} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 61, No. 1, 54--95 (2008; Zbl 1173.26321)]. In general, \textit{D. H. Armitage} and \textit{M. Goldstein} [Tôhoku Math. J., II. Ser. 38, 231--243 (1986; Zbl 0583.31003)] had shown that the condition \(A_{(n+2)/n}(f;x,r)\leq M_{1}(f;x,r)\), for every \(x\) and \(r\), is sufficient for \(\log f\) to be subharmonic. The authors now show that a necessary condition is that \(A_{n/(n-1)}(f;x,r)\leq M_{1}(f;x,r)\) for every \(x\) and \(r\). The paper also considers non-negative locally integrable functions \(f\) on \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) satisfying \(M_{p}(f;x,r)\leq KA_{1}(f;x,r)\) for almost every \(x\) and almost every \(r\), where \(p>1\) and \(K>0\). It is then shown that \(A_{p}(f;x,r)\leq cA_{1}(f;x,r)\) for every \(x\) and \(r\), where \(c\) depends on \(n\) and \(K\).