Sunrise strategy for the continuity of maximal operators (Q2680331)

The landmark in the regularity theory of maximal operators is that the centered Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator $M$ is bounded on the Sobolev space $ W^{1,p}(\mathbb{R}^d) $ for $1<p\leq \infty$ by using functional analytic tools, established in [\textit{J. Kinnunen}, Isr. J. Math. 100, 117--124 (1997; Zbl 0882.43003)]. Since the operator $M$ is not necessarily sublinear at the derivative level, the continuity of the map $M:W^{1,p}(\mathbb{R}^d) \to W^{1,p}(\mathbb{R}^d)$ $(1<p\leq \infty)$ is a non-trivial issue settled in [\textit{H. Luiro}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 135, No. 1, 243--251 (2007; Zbl 1136.42018)]. One of the striking features of the regularity theory of maximal operators is the appearance of positive boundedness results at the gradient level despite the absence of corresponding results at the function level. This is the sort of situation that may occur at the endpoint $p=1$. The paper under review develops a sunrise strategy to approach the $W^{1,1}$-continuity problem for the uncentered Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator acting on $W^{1,1}(\mathbb{R}^{n})$ with radial functions. The key strategy is the decomposition of a maximal operator, with the absence of strict local maxima in the disconnecting set, into ``lateral'' maximal operators with good monotonicity and convergence properties. As applications, the strategy can be applied to the $W^{1,1}$-continuity problem of the Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator on the sphere, the non-tangential Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator, and the non-tangential heat flow maximal operator.