A new characterization of Sobolev spaces on \({\mathbb{R}^{n}}\) (Q453413)

The authors present a new integral operator that characterizes Sobolev spaces. The condition is given in terms of \[ S_0 f(x)^2 = \int_0^{\infty} \left| \frac{f_{B(x,t)} - f(x)}{t} \right|^2 \frac{dt}{t}, \] where \(f_{B(x,t)}\) is the average of \(f\) over the ball of radius \(t\), \[ f_{B(x,t)} = \frac{1}{| B(x,t)|} \int_{B(x,t)} f(z) \, dz. \] They show that \(f \in W^{1, p}\) (i.e., \(f\) and its first derivatives are in \(L^p\)) if and only if \(f \in L^p\), \(S_0f \in L^p\). They extend the result to \(W^{\alpha, p}\), \(0 < \alpha < 2\), by introducing \[ S_{\alpha} f(x)^2 = \int_0^{\infty} \left| \frac{f_{B(x,t)} - f(x)}{t^{\alpha}} \right|^2 \frac{dt}{t}, \] and proving that \(f \in W^{\alpha, p}\), \(0 < \alpha < 2\) if and only if \(f, S_{\alpha}f \in L^p\). A much more complicated version of \(S_{\alpha}\) allows them to extend this result for every \(\alpha > 0\). Notice that \[ S_{\alpha} f(x)^2 = \int_0^{\infty} \left| \frac1{| B(x, t)|} \int_{B(x,t)} \frac{f (y) - f(x)}{t^{\alpha}}\, dy \right|^2 \frac{dt}{t}. \] Similar results have been given by \textit{R. S. Strichartz} [J. Math. Mech. 16, 1031--1060 (1967; Zbl 0145.38301)] for \(0 < \alpha < 1\), but his results emphasized the larger variant of the above integral where the absolute value is inside the integral. While this works for \(0 < \alpha < 1\), the authors' variant is required for \(1 \leq \alpha <2\). \textit{R. L. Wheeden} proved results that contain the authors' main result for \(\alpha\) not an even integer [Stud. Math. 32, 73--93 (1969; Zbl 0177.15703)], or for \(X\) a homogeneous space with \(0 < \alpha < 1\) [Stud. Math. 44, 17--26 (1972; Zbl 0259.44003)]. The advantage of the authors' approach is that, since only balls about points and their measures are required, the results can be extended to define Sobolev spaces on metric measure spaces.