Maximal operator and superharmonicity (Q2707677)

The signed maximal operator of a function \(u\) on an open set \(\Omega \subset \mathbb R^n\) is defined as NEWLINE\[NEWLINE M_{\Omega }u(x) = \sup _{r>0} \frac {1}{|B(x,r)|}\int _{B(x,r)}u(y) dy. NEWLINE\]NEWLINE Let the function \(u\) be measurable and locally bounded from below. Then we can apply the signed maximal operator and iterate it infinitely many times, the resulting function is denoted by \(M_{\Omega }^{(\infty)}u\). The main result states that \(M_{\Omega }^{(\infty)}u\) coincides with the least superharmonic almost everywhere majorant \(Au\) of \(u\), which in turn is the strong balayage of \(u\) (i.e., the balayage neglecting the sets of measure zero). If \(u\in W^{1,2}(\Omega)\), then \(M_{\Omega }^{(\infty)}u\) is the solution of the obstacle problem of minimizing the Dirichlet integral among all functions \(v\) which satisfy \(v\geq u\) a.e.\ and \(v-u\in W_0^{1,2}(\Omega)\). In the entire space we obtain the \(W^{1,\infty }\)-weak* convergence of the iterated maximal functions to the solution \(v\) provided \(u\in W^{1,\infty }\).NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 0933.00035].