Sharp estimate of the Ahlfors-Beurling operator via averaging martingale transforms (Q1411316)

The authors study the connection of the two-dimensional martingale transform (i.e., the unconditionality of two-dimensional Haar functions) with the Ahlfors-Beurling operator \[ Tf(x,y) = \iint_{{\pmb R}\times{\pmb R}} \frac{f(x-u,y-v)}{(u+iv)^2} \, du\, dv. \] The main result is that \(T\) can be represented as a certain limit of averages of two-dimensional martingale transforms, i.e., \(T\) is in the weakly closed linear span of two-dimensional martingale transforms. This gives a direct connection of singular intergrals and martingale transforms in the two-dimensional setting, which is to date not available in the one-dimensional case. As a consequence the authors reprove a result from \textit{S.~Petermichl} and \textit{A. Volberg} [Duke Math. J. 112, No. 2, 281--305 (2002; Zbl 1025.30018)] about the boundedness of the Ahlfors-Beurling operator on the spaces \(L^p(w)\), where \(w\) is a positive measurable weight function such that \[ Q_{w,p} := \sup_{Q\subset {\pmb R}^2}\langle w\rangle_Q\langle w^{-1/(p-1)}\rangle_Q^{p-1} < \infty, \] where \(\langle w\rangle_Q\) denotes the average of the function \(w\) over the square \(Q\) w.r.t. planar Lebesgue measure and the supremum is taken over \textit{all} squares in \({\pmb R}^2\). Finally, it is shown that the norm estimate obtained in this way is sharp.