On flows of \(H ^{3/2}\)-vector fields on the circle (Q2268142)

The universal Teichmüller space \(T(1)\) can be regarded as a group formed by quasi-symmetric maps on the unit circle \(\mathbb{S}^1\). It is naturally endowed with a well-known complex Hilbert manifold structure that is compatible with the Weil-Petersson metric, making the identity component a topological group. The aim of the paper under review is to characterize the flows of the vector fields defined by the tangents to the identity components (consisting of \(H^{3/2}\)-vector fields on \(\mathbb{S}^1\), see the definition below) in terms of fractional Sobolev norms. Denote by \(W^{3/2,2}(\mathbb{S}^1)\) the subspace of \(L^2(\mathbb{S}^1)\) consisting of functions whose weak derivatives are in \(W^{1/2,2}(\mathbb{S}^1)\), where we introduce the \(W^{s,p}(\mathbb{S}^1)\)-norm for \(s\in (0,1)\) and \(p\in [1,\infty)\) as follows: \[ ||v||_{W^{s,p}(\mathbb{S}^1)} = || v ||_{L^p(\mathbb{S}^1)}+\left( \int_{\mathbb{S}^1}\!\int_{\mathbb{S}^1} \frac{|v(x)-v(y)|^{p}}{|x-y|^{1+sp}}\,dx\,dy \right)^{1/p}. \] Since \(\mathbb{S}^1\) is compact, it is well-known that \(W^{3/2,2}(\mathbb{S}^1)\) is identified with the Sobolev space \(H^{3/2}(\mathbb{S}^1)\) [see \textit{R.\,A.\thinspace Adams}, ``Sobolev spaces'' (Pure and Applied Mathematics 65; New York--San Francisco--London:\ Academic Press) (1975; Zbl 0314.46030)] for the definition and basic properties of the space \(H^{3/2}(\mathbb{S}^1)\)). Let \(T\) be a positive number. For \(u\in C([0,T], H^{3/2}(\mathbb{S}^1))\), we consider the following ordinary differential equation: \[ \begin{cases} \dot{f}(t,x)=u(t,f(t,x)), \;\;\;x\in \mathbb{S}^1, \\ f(0,x)=x. \end{cases}\tag{A} \] The author proves that \(H^{3/2}\) embeds into logLipschitz and thus there exists a unique solution \(f(t,x)\) for (A) that is a self-homeomorphism of \(\mathbb{S}^1\) for all \(t\in [0,T]\) [see, for instance, \textit{P.\,Hartman}, ``Ordinary differential equations'' (2nd ed., Reprint; Boston--Basel--Stuttgart:\ Birkhäuser) (1982; Zbl 0476.34002)]. More precise information is given in the main result of this paper: Given a vector field \(u\in C([0,T], H^{3/2}(\mathbb{S}^1))\), let \(f(t,\cdot):\mathbb{S}^1\rightarrow \mathbb{S}^1\) be the corresponding flow map. Then \(f(t,\cdot)\) belongs to \(W^{1,p}(\mathbb{S}^1)\) for all \(p\in [1,\infty)\) and to \(W^{1+r,q}(\mathbb{S}^1)\) for all \(r\in (0,1/2)\) and \(q\in [1,1/r)\). On the other hand, there exists an autonomous vector field \(u\in H^{3/2}(\mathbb{S}^1)\) such that its flow map is neither Lipschitz nor \(W^{1+r,1/r}\) for all \(r\in (0,1)\). In particular, the flow map is not \(H^{3/2}\). The first part of the theorem is settled by Proposition 2.1. To prove the remaining part of the theorem, the author shows that \[ u_x\circ f(t,\cdot)\in L^{\infty}([0,T],W^{r,q}(\mathbb{S}^1)) \] for \(r\in (0,1/2)\) and \(q\in [1,1/r)\) (Lemma 2.2). Then the author is able to estimate \[ \begin{aligned} \tfrac{d}{dt}\left| f_x(t,x)-f_x(t,y) \right|\leq \left| u_x(t,f(t,x))-u_x(t,f(t,y)) \right| \left| f_x(t,x) \right| + \\ + \left|u_x(t,f(t,y))\right|\left| f_x(t,x)-f_x(t,y) \right|.\end{aligned} \] Duhamel's formula along with the initial condition \(f_x(0,x)=1\) yields that \[ \begin{aligned} \left| f_x(t,x)-f_y(t,y) \right| \leq \int_{0}^t e^{\int_s^t\left| u_x(\tau,f(\tau,y)) \right|d\tau}\left| u_x(s,f(s,x)) \right|\\ -u_x(s,f(s,y))\left| f_x(s,x) \right|ds. \end{aligned} \] Using Hölder's and Jensen's inequalities, the author obtains \[ \frac{\left|f_x(t,x)-f_x(t,y)\right|^{q}}{\left| x-y \right|^{1+rq}}\in L^1(\mathbb{S}^1\times \mathbb{S}^1) \] uniformly in time. It follows that \(f_x\in L^{\infty}([0,T],W^{r,q}(\mathbb{S}^1))\) for all \(r\in (0,1/2)\) and \(q\in [1,1/r)\). In the last part of the paper, the author constructs a counterexample to the \(H^{3/2}\)-regularity.