Modular inequalities for the maximal operator in variable Lebesgue spaces (Q1626693)

Let $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^{n}$ be a Lebesgue measurable set, $0<|\Omega|\le \infty$. Given a measurable exponent function $p: \Omega \to [1,\infty)$, quoted as $p\in \mathcal P(\Omega)$, set \[ \rho_{p,\Omega}(f)=\int_{\Omega}|f(x)|^{p(x)}\,dx. \] The variable Lebesgue space $L^{p(\cdot)}$ is defined as the set of all measurable functions $f$ such that for some $\lambda>0$, $\rho_{p,\Omega}(f/\lambda)<\infty$. The space $L^{p(\cdot)}(\Omega)$ is a Banach space when equipped with the Luxemburg norm \[ \|f\|_{L^{p(x)}(\Omega)}=\inf \{\lambda : \rho_{p,\Omega}(f/\lambda)\le 1\}. \] For a function $f\in L'_{\text{loc}}(\Omega)$ let us introduce the Hardy-Littlewood maximal function $Mf$ defined by \[ Mf(x)=\sup_{Q\ni x}\frac{1}{|Q|} \int_{Q}|f(y)|\,dy, \] where $Q$ runs over all cubes $Q\subset \mathbb{R}^{n}$ containing $x$ and whose sides are parallel to the coordinates axes. As it is well known the operator $M$ is bounded in the classical space $L^{p}(\Omega)$. \par For a measurable exponent function $p$ and a measurable set $E\subset \mathbb{R}^{n}$, $|E\cap \Omega|>0$ let us write \[ p_{+}(E)=\mathop{\text{ess sup}}_ {x\in E\cap\Omega} p(x),\quad p_{-}(E)=\mathop{\text{ess inf}}_{x\in E\cap \Omega} p(x) \] and for brevity, $p_{+}=p_{+}(\Omega)$, $p_{-}=p_{-}(\Omega)$. \par Neugebauer and the first and third authors of this paper proved the inequality \[ \|Mf\|_{L^{p(\cdot)}(\Omega)}\le C\|f\|_{L^{p(\cdot)}(\Omega)} \] under the hypothesis that $1<p_{-}\le p_{+}<\infty$ and $p$ is log-Hölder continuous both locally and at infinity. \par Concerning the modular inequality \[ \int_{\Omega} Mf(x)^{p(x)}\,dx \le C\int_{\Omega}|f(x)|^{p(x)}\,dx, \] Lerner proved that for $\Omega=\mathbb{R}^{n}$ and $p_{+}<\infty$ it holds only in the case that $p$ is constant almost everywhere. However, weaker modular inequalities that include an error term are true. The goal of the present paper is to give necessary and sufficient conditions for modular inequalities of the form \[ \int_{\Omega}Mf(x)^{p(x)}\,dx \le c_{1} \int_{\Omega} |f(x)|^{q(x)}\,dx+c_{2} \tag{1} \] to hold for all measurable functions $f$, $p$ and $q$ measurable exponent functions and $c_{1}>0$, $c_{2}\ge 0$ some constants. \par The characterization of the exponents $p$ and $q$, for which the modular inequality holds, depends strongly on whether $\Omega$ has finite or infinite measure. \begin{itemize} \item[$\bullet$] Given a set $\Omega\subseteq \mathbb{R}^{n}$, $0<|\Omega|<\infty$, let $p(\cdot),q(\cdot)\in \mathcal{P}(\Omega)$, $p(\cdot)\not\equiv 1$. Then the modular inequality (1) holds if and only if $p_{+}(\Omega)\le q_{-}(\Omega)$. \end{itemize} To deal with the case of infinite measure, $|\Omega|=\infty$, given two exponent functions $p,q\in \mathcal{P}(\Omega)$ write $p(\cdot)\Bumpeq q(\cdot)$ ($p$ and $q$ touch at infinity) if for every set $E\subset\Omega$ with $|E|=\infty$ it is \[ p_{+}(E)=p_{+}(\Omega)=q_{-}(\Omega)=q_{.}(E). \] Then one has \begin{itemize} \item[$\bullet$] Given a set $\Omega\subseteq \mathbb R^{n}$, $|\Omega|=\infty$, let $p(\cdot),q(\cdot)\in\mathcal{P}(\Omega)$, $p(\cdot)\not\equiv 1$. Define $D:=\{x\in\Omega: p(x)<q(x)\}\ne 0$. Then the following are equivalent: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] The modular inequality (1) holds; \item[(ii)] $p(\cdot)\Bumpeq q(\cdot)$ and $L^{q(\cdot)}(\Omega)\hookrightarrow L^{p(\cdot)}(\Omega)$; \item[(iii)] $p(\cdot)\Bumpeq q(\cdot)$ and there exists $\lambda >1$ such that \[ \rho_{r(\cdot),D}(1/\lambda)=\int_{D}\lambda^{-r(x)}\,dx<\infty, \tag{2} \] where $r(\cdot)$ is the defect exponent defined by $\frac{1}{r(x)}=\frac{1}{p(x)}-\frac{1}{q(x)}$; \item[(iv)] $p(\cdot)\Bumpeq q(\cdot)$ and there exists a measurable function $\omega$, $0<\omega(\cdot)\le 1$, such that \[ \rho_{p(\cdot),D}(\omega)=\int_{D}\omega(x)^{p(x)}\,dx<\infty \] and \[ \|\omega(\cdot)^{-|p_{+}-p(\cdot)|}\|_{L^{\infty}(D)}\cdot \|\omega(\cdot)^{-|q(\cdot)-p_{+}|}\|_{L^{\infty}(D)}<\infty. \] \end{itemize} \end{itemize} The proof of sufficiency in the previous results uses only the fact that the maximal operator is bounded on $L^{p}(\Omega)$. So the following corollary holds. \begin{itemize} \item[$\bullet$] Given a set $\Omega$ and $p(\cdot),q(\cdot)\in\mathcal{P}(\Omega)$, suppose that either $|\Omega|<\infty$ and $p_{+}(\Omega)\le q_{-}(\Omega)$, or $|\Omega|=\infty$, $p(\cdot) \Bumpeq q(\cdot)$, and (2) holds. If $T$ is any operator that is bounded on $L^{p}(\Omega)$ for all $1<p<\infty$, then \[ \int_{\Omega}|Tf(x)|^{p(x)}\,dx \le c_{1}\int_{\Omega}|f(x)|^{q(x)}\,dx +c_{2}, \] with positive constants $c_{1}$, $c_{2}$ that depend on $p(\cdot)$, $q(\cdot)$ and $T$ but not on $f$. \end{itemize}