Harmonic analysis for resistance forms. (Q1421836)

The author studies resistance forms and elements of potential theory on post critically finite self-similar structures. Following his book [Analysis on Fractals, Cambridge Univ.\ Press (2001; Zbl 0998.28004)] he introduces Dirichlet forms and Laplacians on finite sets and resistance forms \((\mathcal E,\mathcal F)\) and a resistance metric \(R(\cdot,\cdot)\) for a general set \(X\). A brief survey (without proofs) is given in the paper. Within this framework the notion of Green function \(g_B^x\) for a finite set \(B\) is introduced as \(g_B^x = R(x,B)\psi_x^{B\cup x}\) where \(R(x,B)\) is the effective resistance between \(x\) and the set \(B\) and where \(\psi_x^{B\cup x}\) is the unique \(B\cup x\)-harmonic function with boundary value \(1\) on \(x\) and \(0\) on \(B\). The function \(g_B^x\) is then characterized as a reproducing kernel of \(\mathcal E\) on \(\mathcal F_B := \{u\in\mathcal F \mid u|_B = 0\}\), i.e., \(\mathcal E(u,g_B^x) = u(x)\). The main theorem in this direction is the result that \(g_B^x\) is uniformly Lipschitz continuous (with constant \(1\)) w.r.t.\ the metric \(R\). This entails that also harmonic functions are Lipschitz continuous. Rather than using \(g_B^x\) as kernel (w.r.t.\ some measure \(\mu\) on \(X\)), the author then introduces a ``measure-free'' notion of a Green operator \(G_B\) for a finite set \(B\) which acts on a subclass \(M(X,R)\) of signed measures on \(X\) and has values in \(\mathcal F_B\): \(\mathcal E(G_B\phi, u) = \int u\,d\phi\), \(\phi\in M(X,R)\). This can be used to define the domain \(\mathcal D^L\) of the generalized (note: measure-valued!) Dirichlet Laplacian \(L_B\) by using a Weyl-type decomposition \(\text{Im}\,G_b \oplus \mathcal H_B\) (the latter are the harmonic functions for the boundary \(B\)). In fact, \(\mathcal D^L\) turns out to be independent of \(B\) and all elements \(v\in\mathcal D^L\) are Lipschitz-continuous w.r.t.\ \(R\) and even have Neumann derivatives \((dv)_x\) at each point. These results can then be used to give a representation of the resistance form \[ \mathcal E(u,v) = \sum_{p\in B} u(p)(dv)_p - \int u\,d(L_b v), \quad u\in\mathcal F, \;\; v\in\mathcal D^L. \] Finally, realizations of these ``measure-free'' objects are studied by introducing a base measure \(\mu\) on \(X\) which lead to the classical notions of potential theory and classical Dirichlet forms associated with the resistance form. The results of the paper are also applied to p.c.f.\ self-similar structures to give characterizations of various function spaces and domains introduced in the general setting. This complements known (probabilistic) results for this kind of fractals, see e.g.\ \textit{B. M. Hambly} and \textit{T. Kumagai} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 78, 431--458 (1999; Zbl 1027.60087)] and the literature mentioned there.