Averages over surfaces with infinitely flat points (Q1891834)

Let \(S\) be a hypersurface in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 2\), and let \(d\mu= \psi d\sigma\), where \(\psi\in C_0^\infty (\mathbb{R}^n)\) and \(\sigma\) denotes the surface area measure on \(S\). Define the maximal function \({\mathcal M}\) associated to \(S\) and \(\mu\) by \[ {\mathcal M} f(x)= \sup_{t>0} \Biggl|\int_S f(x- t\xi) d\mu (\xi) \Biggr|, \qquad f\in {\mathcal S} (\mathbb{R}^n). \] It was shown by Stein that when \(S\) is the sphere in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\geq 3\), \({\mathcal M}\) (the spherical maximal function) is bounded on \(L^p (\mathbb{R}^n)\) if and only if \(p> n/(n- 1)\). It has also been shown that if \(S\) is of finite type, i.e., the curvature vanishes to at most a finite order \(m\) at every point of \(S\), then there exists some number \(p_m< \infty\) such that \({\mathcal M}\) is bounded on \(L^p (\mathbb{R}^n)\) \((n\geq 3)\) for all \(p\in (p_m, \infty]\). On the other hand it is well known that if \(S\) is flat, that is, \(S\) contains a point at which the curvature vanishes to infinite order, then \({\mathcal M}\) may not be bounded on any \(L^p (\mathbb{R}^n)\), \(p<\infty\). In this article, the author shows that under some hypotheses the maximal functions \({\mathcal M}\) associated to flat surfaces \(S\subset \mathbb{R}^3\) are bounded on certain Orlicz spaces \(L^\Phi (\mathbb{R}^3)\) defined naturally in terms of \(S\).