An equivalence between the limit smoothness and the rate of convergence for a general contraction operator family (Q2657241)

Summary: Let \(X\) be a topological space equipped with a complete positive \(\sigma \)-finite measure and \(T\) a subset of the reals with \(0\) as an accumulation point. Let \(a_t\left( x, y\right)\) be a nonnegative measurable function on \(X\times X\) which integrates to \(1\) in each variable. For a function \(f\in L_2\left( X\right)\) and \(t\in T \), define \(A_tf\left( x\right)\equiv\int a_t\left( x, y\right)f\left( y\right)dy\). We assume that \(A_tf\) converges to \(f\) in \(L_2\), as \(t\longrightarrow0\) in \(T\). For example, \( A_t\) is a diffusion semigroup (with \(T=\left[ 0, \infty\right))\). For \(W\) a finite measure space and \(w\in W \), select real-valued \(h_w\in L_2\left( X\right)\), defined everywhere, with \(\left\| h_w\right\|_{L_2 \left( X\right)}\leq1\). Define the distance \(D\) by \(D\left( x, y\right)\equiv \left\| h_w \left( x\right) - h_w \left( y\right)\right\|_{L_2 \left( W\right)}\). Our main result is an equivalence between the smoothness of an \(L_2\left( X\right)\) function \(f\) (as measured by an \(L_2\)-Lipschitz condition involving \(a_t\left( \cdot, \cdot\right)\) and the distance \(D)\) and the rate of convergence of \(A_tf\) to \(f\).