Ergodic theorem in variable {L}ebesgue spaces (Q2400111)

The paper under review extends Birkhoff's ergodic theorem to the context of Lebesgue spaces with variable exponents. Let \((\Omega,\Sigma,\mu)\) be a probability space, \(T:\Omega\rightarrow\Omega\) a measure preserving transformation and let \(p:\Omega\rightarrow[1,\infty)\) be a \(T\)-invariant variable exponent such that \(\operatorname{esssup}p^{+}<\infty.\) It is proved that for every function \(f\) in \(L^{p(\cdot)}(\Omega)\) the limit \(f_{av}(x)=\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}\frac{1}{n}\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}f(T^{k}(x))\) exists almost everywhere, \(f_{av}\) belongs to \(L^{p(\cdot)}(\Omega),\) and moreover \(\frac{1}{n}\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}f\circ T^{k}-f_{av}\rightarrow0\) in the Luxemburg norm of \(L^{p(\cdot)}(\Omega).\) The paper also includes an example showing that the norm convergence fails to hold for an exponent \(p\) which is not \(T\)-invariant.