Weighted inequalities for fractional maximal functions on the infinite rooted \(k\)-ary tree (Q2105916)

In this paper, the authors consider the fractional Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator on the infinite rooted \(k\)-ary tree and study its weighted boundedness. For \(k \geq 2\) we let \(\mathcal{T}^k\) denote the infinite rooted \(k\)-ary tree. We may associate to \(\mathcal{T}\) the metric \(d\), where \(d(x,y)\) denotes the number of edges in the minimal path joining \(x\) and \(y\). We let \(B(x,r) = \{y \in \mathcal{T}^k : d(x,y) \leq r\}\) and \(S(x,r) = \{y \in \mathcal{T}^k: d(x,y) = r\}.\) For \(0 \leq \alpha < 1\), the fractional Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator \(M_\alpha\) is defined by \[ M_\alpha f(x) = \sup_{r \in \mathbb{N}_0} \frac{1}{|B(x,r)|^{1 - \alpha}} \int_{B(x,r)} |f(y)|\;dy, \] and the spherical fractional maximal operator \(S_\alpha\) is defined by \[ S_\alpha f(x) = \sup_{r \in \mathbb{N}_0} \frac{1}{|S(x,r)|^{1 - \alpha}}\int_{S(x,r)} |f(y)|\;dy. \] Note that, unlike in the Euclidean setting, \(M_\alpha\) and \(S_\alpha\) are pointwise equivalent operators. Given a weight \(w\) on \(\mathcal{T}^k\), if \(S_\alpha: L^p(w) \rightarrow L^q(w)\) is a bounded operator, then for any \(r \in \mathbb{N}\) and finite subsets \(E,F\) of \(\mathcal{T}^k\) we have \[ \sum_{x \in E} w(F \cap S(x,r)) \lesssim k^{r(1 - \alpha)}w(E)^{1/p}w(F)^{1 - 1/q}. \] Now, the latter is not a sufficient condition for \(S_\alpha: L^p(w) \rightarrow L^q(w)\) to be a bounded operator. However, the authors show that by imposing a better decay estimate with respect to \(k\) one may obtain a sufficient condition. In particular, they define the following class of weights: For \(1 < p\), \(q < \infty\) and \(0 < \alpha < 1\), a weight \(w\) is said to be in \(\mathcal{Z}_{p,q}^{\epsilon, \alpha}\) provided there exist \(0 < \epsilon < 1 \) and a constant \(C > 0\) such that for all \(r \in \mathbb{N}\) and \(E,F \subset \mathcal{T}^k\) we have \[ \sum_{x \in E} w(F \cap S(x,r)) \leq C k^{\epsilon r (1 - \alpha)}w(E)^{1/p} w(F)^{1 - 1/q}. \] The authors' main result is the following: Let \(1 < p \leq q < \infty\) and \(0 < \alpha < 1\). Then for \(w \in \mathcal{Z}_{p,q}^{\epsilon, \alpha}\) we have \(S_\alpha: L^p(w) \rightarrow L^q(w)\) is a bounded operator. The authors subsequently provide concrete examples of weights in the class \(\mathcal{Z}_{p,q}^{\epsilon, \alpha}\).