Boundedness of bilinear operators with nonsmooth symbols (Q5929477)

The authors consider the following bilinear operator associated to a closed one-sided cone \(\Gamma\) with vertex at the origin and to a multiplier \(m\), \[ C_\Gamma(f, g)= \int_\Gamma m(\xi, n)\widehat f(\xi)\widehat g(\eta) e^{2\pi ix(\xi+ \eta)}d\xi d\eta. \] The main result establishes conditions on the multiplier \(m\), that it is allowed to have singularities along the edges of the cone as well as possibly at its vertex, so that \(C_\Gamma\) is a bounded operator from \(L^p(\mathbb{R})\times L^q(\mathbb{R})\) into \(L^r(\mathbb{R})\) for \(p,q> 1\) and \(1/p+ 1/q= 1/r\). In order to prove this result the cone operator is represented, by using a Whitney decomposition, in terms of a doubly-infinite sum of `discrete' bilinear operators (the so-called time-frequency paraproducts). The \(L^p\)-boundedness of these discretizations which allows to obtain the corresponding one for \(C_\Gamma\) is then investigated. Estimates on functions associated with trees and Littlewood-Paley type arguments on trees are used in this study. The results include previous ones of \textit{R. R. Coifman} and \textit{Y. Meyer} [Asterisque 57, 185 p. (1978; Zbl 0483.35082) and Lect. Notes Math. 779, 104-122 (1980; Zbl 0427.42006)] for smooth multipliers and others for the bilinear Hilbert transform recently obtained by \textit{M. Lacey} and \textit{C. Thiele} [Ann. Math. (2) 146, No. 3, 693-724 (1997; Zbl 0914.46034); ibid. 149, No. 2, 475-496 (1999; Zbl 0934.42012)].